Liffey valley to start charging for parking

People who travel 5 adults to a car are very much a tiny minority. If that was the norm, we wouldn't need to be having discussions around sustainability.

Not that the bus journey time you posted there isn't an issue. Prefer sustainable transport for the most part myself (lot less stress than driving for the decent bus routes) but would definitely be taking the car if it saved an hour.

Why?

Practically every new album still gets a release on CD and vinyl as well as being available to download and stream.

Reissues & compilations are released on physical formats every week.

BDs and DVDs still selling. I watched 58 films in July (56 BDs, 2 DVDs). None of them were available on Netflix.

Ok but we've gone from 100% of people consuming music or film/TV boxsets the way you describe to probably less than 10%...that doesn't suggest a viability of such an outlet in most shopping centres. I sometimes visit a Golden Discs if I'm killing time and I have the store to myself to just browse. I remember in the 90s/00s barely having space to browse the displays as you were banging elbows with all the other consumers.

I know there has been a vinyl renaissance and some people still buy DVDs but it seems very niche and I wonder is it sustainable? Streaming continues to increase market share every year too. Also, you are spending 100s a month on films assuming a tenner minimum per DVD...you really are in a less than 1% segment that would spend such a significant amount of money each month that way...I doubt such shops could profit alone from such an outlier segment of consumers. It is not reflective of a typical customer.

Streaming has peaked at about 89% of album sales. There will always be a demand for physical media for the remainder so a small number of stores will be sustainable.

Vinyl gets all the headlines but that's because a new LP is 2.5 times the price of a CD so turnover from vinyl sales is greater. In terms of unit sales, CD is leading the market in UK, Germany, Japan and Australia. Vinyl is ahead in the USA (about a 57/43 split). I am not sure what the Irish figures are (they've always been hard to ascertain) but I'd guess around 50/50. I have always bought both formats.

I rarely buy DVDs now but buy plenty BDs. Between the US, UK and Australia, there are about a dozen boutique labels releasing four or five cult films every month - all limited runs, nearly all sell out. I usually purchase these online. Yes, it's a niche hobby but there's no sign of it stopping.

The appetite for physical formats in Ireland is subtly different to the UK's so Golden Discs business model works well (more focused on new releases rather than reissues).

The branch in The Square isn't a pop up, its been there for years?

Seriously? It’s free to just cut them off!

and here's me paying for my shopping like an idiot when it's also free to just rob it! 🙄

Sounds a bit violent 🤣

I assume you mean Gourmet Burger. Is it just Liffey Valley or the whole chain? They were bang average. I'm amazed they're still in business

There's an article in the Sunday Times today about the centre and how Hines are looking to rezone land beside the centre to build 1,400 apartments. I assume it's the land between Tesco and the centre.

Interestingly though, Hines also report that footfall in the centre is up 4% for the year to the end of September and:

"Retailers such as Bershka, PTSB and Timberland have renewed their leases and upgraded their stores, while new lets in 2024 include Levi’s, Hobbs and Select."

Ah but that'll be something for them to study about, not you 🤣