Bad weather and belt tightening blamed for business downturn in Ennis

TRADE in Ennis shops was down last weekend on comparable weekends before Christmas in recent years, due to a mixture of the bad road conditions in parts of Clare and people tightening their belts after the Budget.

CEO of Ennis Chamber Rita McInerney said that town was “busy enough”, but not what shops had hoped for.
“Traditionally, the weekend before Christmas tends to be the busiest shopping weekend of the year. The weather hindered people coming into Ennis to shop, on Saturday more so than on Sunday.
“Because of the impact of the weather, it is hard to gauge the effectiveness of pedestrianisation on Saturday, that and the reality of the effects the Budget are having on people’s finances.
“Many people who travelled home to West Clare and North Clare on Friday evening experienced long delays due to the bad road conditions and they obviously decided not to drive into Ennis again on Saturday for fear of facing the same road conditions and delays again,” Ms McInerney commented.
“In saying that there were shoppers in Ennis on Saturday, but it wasn’t as busy as we had hoped,” she added. “Sunday was busy, but not as good as comparable Sunday before Christmas shopping. The way Christmas falls this year, people must have been less panicked about shopping over the weekend, because they have five full shop opening days before Christmas Day to complete their shopping.”
The Chamber CEO said that she does not think that pedestrianisation is necessary on the Sunday before Christmas. “Traditionally people like to browse around town on the Sunday before Christmas, so I don’t think pedestrianising some streets would make even more people come into Ennis,” she added.
Ms McInerney also thinks that people are adopting a wait-and-see how the weather goes approach to their shopping this week and hoping road conditions will continue to improve, allowing them to come to Ennis to shop later in the week.