Ikea in Mallow

[lightswitch]

I'n not a big fan of IKea to be honest. Its OK for bits for the Kitchen and as was previously said there are some bargains but some items are over priced to compensate for this. But it seems to be a cost effective way for many to furnish their homes.

As you point out Shesells, these shops are in trouble anyway. My big bone of contention is the Chinese imports, whether it is a cushion or a set of bedroom furniture. This is across the board even in traditional shops. I assume Ikea is the same. I would have more loyalty to traditional Irish shops that have been in business for years if they stocked Irish products, or even European products.

 

[terrontress]

Will we see a day when the town centres are dead, and we all shop in out of town retail parks, with only 10 or so retailers like Tesco, Ikea, Currys, Homebase, Argos etc?

Take a look in the UK. You've got each city surrounded by retail parks with Argos, Toys R Us, Halfords, Tesco, TK Maxx, Next, M&S.

The town centres are full of JD Wetherspoon pubs and mobile phone accessories shops.

I think traders in Lisburn are fighting tooth and nail to have John Lewis banned from opening near to there.

I'm not sure what to think about it to be honest. Sometimes the costs of goods in local traders can be shocking compared to the large multiples. But I'd rather buy from a local compared to a corporation.

 

[Caveat]

... But I'd rather buy from a local compared to a corporation.

Surely you have a limit though? The fairly common flip side of this argument is the classic Mr Murphy & Co who has operated with a virtual monopoly for generations and basically, has been overcharging for many of his items for years. There are plenty of these people around. As far as I'm concerned they deserve to lose business.

I have no qualms whatsoever in buying form a multinational as opposed to a local trader - I'll buy from whoever gives me the best service. By best service I mean literal customer service, flexibility and choice as well as just price.

Give me a modern, bright, friendly, well stocked, low cost corporation over a dusty, grumpy, overpriced, out of date old bean counter any day.

One thing I won't do is buy local - or Irish for that matter - just for the sake of it.

 

[RMCF]

Take a look in the UK. You've got each city surrounded by retail parks with Argos, Toys R Us, Halfords, Tesco, TK Maxx, Next, M&S.

The town centres are full of JD Wetherspoon pubs and mobile phone accessories shops.

I think traders in Lisburn are fighting tooth and nail to have John Lewis banned from opening near to there.

I'm not sure what to think about it to be honest. Sometimes the costs of goods in local traders can be shocking compared to the large multiples. But I'd rather buy from a local compared to a corporation.

I live close to the border with Derry, and you have just summed up that city perfectly.

The same old stores in these big retail parks !

And they are only getting bigger. The likes of Asda looking to move in, and Tesco's expanding. I personally do not think we will have independent retailers in the next 20 or 30yrs.

 

[Shawady]

We do our shopping in a supermarket but get our meat from a local butcher. As well as the usual steaks and chops, they also do nice stir-frys, italian meatballs, different styles of stuffed chicken breasts etc.
My guess is that this butcher had to diversify a bit to compete with the big boys and seems to be doing quite well.
There probably still is a place for smaller traders if they can give consumers something different than the big supermarkets at a good price.

 

[Betsy Og]

I live close to the border with Derry, and you have just summed up that city perfectly.

Hah?, summed it up perfectly and n'er a mention of Eamon McCann (the official voice of Derry), John Hume, murals, walls, Bloody Sunday, Derry City FC, the Guildhall, the Derry/Londonderry/"Foyle" issue

Only messing, just giving you the perspective of what is synonomous with Derry from the other end of the country.

 

[Firefly]

we do our shopping in a supermarket but get our meat from a local butcher. As well as the usual steaks and chops, they also do nice stir-frys, italian meatballs, different styles of stuffed chicken breasts etc.
My guess is that this butcher had to diversify a bit to compete with the big boys and seems to be doing quite well.
There probably still is a place for smaller traders if they can give consumers something different than the big supermarkets at a good price.

+1

 

[terrontress]

Surely you have a limit though? The fairly common flip side of this argument is the classic Mr Murphy & Co who has operated with a virtual monopoly for generations and basically, has been overcharging for many of his items for years. There are plenty of these people around. As far as I'm concerned they deserve to lose business.

I have no qualms whatsoever in buying form a multinational as opposed to a local trader - I'll buy from whoever gives me the best service. By best service I mean literal customer service, flexibility and choice as well as just price.

Give me a modern, bright, friendly, well stocked, low cost corporation over a dusty, grumpy, overpriced, out of date old bean counter any day.

One thing I won't do is buy local - or Irish for that matter - just for the sake of it.

Well, I hate the "Dunnes Stores - the difference is we're Irish" when all the profits go in to the pockets of one Irish family. There are probably thousands of Irish shareholders in Tesco both holding stocks and with their pensions.

If the truth be told, I am more likely to buy from the multinational than the independent but given an equal offering I'd go independent every time. Unfortunately the offerings are rarely equal. And I suppose Tesco employ lots of people living in the communities in which they operate so it's not a case of all your money being expatriated.

My father in law has a bee in his bonnet about not buying from multinationals. Got his computer off a retailer in Newry who builds and sells computers. I told him to get a Dell. You want to see the rubbish they sold him. He's happy because if it ever goes wrong he thinks he can bring it back to them. I don't think it was ever right. I've never seen a smaller monitor in my life and it takes so long to do anything. He accepts it was more expensive than Dell but is happy to have supported the local economy.

 

[Caveat]

Fair enough. I should add too that all things being equal, yes, ideally I would prefer to 'buy Irish' or from a local outlet but that doesn't happen all that often TBH.

In terms of buying Irish, and certainly in the case of many foodstuffs, the quality is often simply inferior IMO, compared to other better (and cheaper) options - but I guess that's another story.

 

[RMCF]

Hah?, summed it up perfectly and n'er a mention of Eamon McCann (the official voice of Derry), John Hume, murals, walls, Bloody Sunday, Derry City FC, the Guildhall, the Derry/Londonderry/"Foyle" issue

Only messing, just giving you the perspective of what is synonomous with Derry from the other end of the country.

As a proud Derryman, I do of course know how great my home city is!! And just wait til the UK City of Culture drive gets into full swing - it will be worth a visit if you have never been before.

But we were talking about shopping, and thats why I mentioned that we are exactly the same as every other medium/big city when it came to retail parks.

Also looking forward to heading to the Brandywell tonight to watch Derry City thump Cork City

 

[RMCF]

As a proud Derryman, I do of course know how great my home city is!! And just wait til the UK City of Culture drive gets into full swing - it will be worth a visit if you have never been before.

But we were talking about shopping, and thats why I mentioned that we are exactly the same as every other medium/big city when it came to retail parks.

Also looking forward to heading to the Brandywell tonight to watch Derry City thump Cork City

 

[Yorrick]

I really am not too worried about the fate of small local traders. They can compete by giving good value, individual local based products or close down. These are the same business people who dodged their tax responsibilities by using the Ansbacher accounts, false off shore sterling accounts etc. Every list of defaulters issued by the Revenue lists off these local self employed business people. Their families benefited from Third Level grants for years because they were able to fiddle the books. The ordinary PAYE worker was screwed and unable to avail of grants etc.

 

[shesells]

Yorrick your post is unbelievable I've already posted that my friends can't buy the stuff wholesale for what the large multi-nationals sell retail...it's not all about the price. Where is Ikea or Lidl when people run out of gas on Christmas day, or need furniture or flooring in a hurry for a wedding or a wake in the house?

Closing down will cost jobs, and leave large vacant premises in towns...adding to the increasing ghost town effect already started.

As for grants...I know for a fact they could never get grants for their kids. And they certainly never had the kind of money to go near any of the dodges you mention. These people are not wealthy, they have been getting by, providing a service to the local area.

 

[silverwake]

Come on, shesells, you must be talking about George Bailey and family. You're breaking my heart... Surely Ikea would turn Mallow into Pottersville

 

[shesells]

I'm not...I'm talking further afield in the South West..but under an hour from Mallow. There are a handful of very wealthy shopowners in the region, but more than a handful who aren't anything like wealthy.

 

[silverwake]

In that case, I guess that they should get some business makeover and find some marketing channel.
To be honest, I feel that some shopowners got used to be the only ones around, and have become a little bourgeois, providing a so-so service and charging way more than it's worth for it.
As I said, I do not see a huge choice of furniture shops around, and generally they're either extremely expensive or at least too expensive for the real value of what they sell.
They're practically all selling flat-pack and charging as if it was hand-crafted.

I guess that when you run a business of your own, you need to know that times change, and needs of the customers change, so you have to be in constant research of the market.

Or shall we all give up buying computers because then those who used to sell typewriters are now in trouble?

You know what they say... adapt or die.