Nearly 30 fabulous retailers extend opening hours

SHOPS in Ennis are responding to requests from visitors and residents to extend their opening hours and have come together collaboratively to offer Fabulous Fridays for the summer months in Ennis. The launch of Fabulous Fridays will conveniently be in line with the official beginning of Ennis Street Festival this Friday and the duration of the extended opening hours on Fridays has been set from July until December.

“We are delighted to announce that nearly 30 retailers in our key shopping streets, O Connell Street, Lower Market Street and Abbey Street, have come aboard and will be extending their opening hours to 9am to 7.30pm each Friday starting from July 5.” said Brian O’Neill, chair of  Promote Ennis. “We would be delighted if Ennis residents and businesses would support this new initiative in the interest of protecting and furthering local businesses and jobs.”

To support the retailers in their new collaboration, Ennis Town Council has in turn decided to offer an additional hour of free car parking, resulting in free parking from 5pm every Friday in July, August and September.

The full list of retailers will be available from Ennis official website www.visitennis.com. Street by street, the following retailers have joined Fabulous Fridays to-date: on Abbey Street; Elvery’s, Giftvenue, Holly’s Pharmacy, Moody Cow, The Ennis Bookshop, Tierney’s Sweet Shop, Young World; on Lower Market Street and Market Street, An Binsin Luacra, CD2, Cornucopia, Ennis Pet Centre, Manix, Paddy Quinn’s Bar, Something Special, The Irish Shop.com, the Veterinary Surgeon, Precious Pets, Specsavers. And on O’Connell Street Bowe’s News, County Boutique, Delia Keane’s Cafe, Ennis Gift Centre, La Vita Hair & Beauty, Maurer’s Jewellers, Nozomi, Seodín.

Michele Madden, president of Ennis Chamber said, “The Fabulous Fridays Concept is the matching piece to connecting Ennis’ day-time activity with the evening and night-time offering. Following Ennis being the first town in Ireland to be awarded the evening excellence award Purple Flag earlier this year, this is a further key step in terms of collaboration and tourism offering. I am also delighted to see that, in addition to retailers focussing on tourism many who’s business may be perceived as more relevant to residents have come on board as well.”

While the initial drive came from Lower Market Street with  David Woodford in the Irish Shop supporting the idea of extended opening hours in the town, the enthusiasm quickly spread into other streets and Fabulous Friday sare quickly becoming a household name in the shopping streets of Ennis.

“Fabulous Fridays is a great opportunity for the town’s retailers to work together. It is wonderful to know that so many have already come aboard and I hope that others will join us to offer our regular customers and visitors a fabulous experience in Ennis.” said Gwen Culligan of the County Boutique.

“The Fabulous Fridays initiative is a great collaborative experience for Ennis’ retailers and we are delighted to be part of it. This could be the start to more such initiatives and also to a culture of evening shopping in Ennis. I am excited to see what the future brings,” said Ronin Cahir of Giftvenue.

“While the past has shown that it can be hard to unite a business community, this time there is really a huge support for Fabulous Fridays. Having come this far, it can already be seen as a great success and it is largly due to a strong group of people interested in the town’s future whom have come together from different organisations including Promote Ennis, Ennis Chamber and Purple Flag Working Group to make this happen – many thanks to all of them,” said Dave Woodford of TheIrish Shop.

The idea of extended shopping hours was first voiced at Purple Flag Working Group meetings upon receipt of the prestigious award and a business briefing entitled ‘Retail Opportunities in the Early Evening with Purple Flag’. Here survey results from a questionnaire carried out at three key accommodation providers in Ennis town centre were introduced which confirmed that there was a strong demand for early evening shopping (6-8pm) with over 50% of respondents being in favor. The business briefing also saw representatives from Killarney town and business community outlining their success and experiences with retail in the early evening, statistics were communicated showing up to 30% in turn-over after 6pm.

As a result of this convincing case for extended opening hours, a working group including members of Promote Ennis, Ennis Chamber, Individual Retailers and the Purple Flag Working Group was set up entitled ‘Interim Town Team’, which has been actively working on this and other initiatives. The newly elected chairman Councillor Johnny Flynn said,“Retail Excellence Ireland (REI) and many other organisations at home and abroad have in recent years and months recommended the setting up of a stakeholder-rich, stragic and well-funded town team as a means to a successful town.

In Ennis, I have found through working with different stakeholders that we need to bring on different interest groups one by one and look at and understand their needs. I believe that with Fabulous Fridays we have made another leap in the right direction and hope that retailers will join the next Purple Flag Working Group meeting, which already combines an impressive amount of stakeholders and could form the basis for our town team for Ennis.”