Shutters come down on Newmarket shop

ANOTHER small business closed its doors in Clare last week but, thankfully, it wasn’t down to financial problems.

Lemenagh Stores in Newmarket-on-Fergus shut for the last time on Friday as its owners, Frances and Dominic McMahon, are retiring after 36 years at the till.
People were calling last week with flowers, cards and presents and while Frances said she is glad to be retiring, there’s a lot she will miss.
“I’m sad. I’ll miss all my customers and the children that come in. They’d be in for the 50c and €1 bags of sweets. It’s time to retire and take a break for a few years, while we’re in good health.”
Economies of scale have posed problems for smaller retailers but Frances says they had their own niche and weren’t affected badly. “Supermarkets have come in, in a big way. But we did ok, we held our own. We had our base and we were out on our own, which is a big thing. We’ve had good neighbours and they’ve all supported us. We’d have the bits and pieces that people would be stuck for more than anything else. We’d have milk and bread, that kind of thing.”
She said the shop never changed much since it opened in 1974, and she is glad it didn’t.
“We didn’t change very much, we didn’t have a deli or anything like that. We didn’t develop on a big scale, we just stayed small, which was what the people here wanted. If you expanded too much you could go down like a shot, like a lot of shops.”
The shop had very long opening hours, so it was fortunate that Frances enjoyed what she was doing. “I started at 7.15am and keep going until 10 at night every day. One of the children would do it every weekend. They were great. We have a mobile in Lahinch so we’d go back there at the weekend and they were great to let us off.”
Husband, Dominic, had expected their business would go into decline some years back but it didn’t really happen.
“The passing trade was very good until the bypass came and then it started to dwindle a bit but not by as much as we had thought it would. We thought we’d be retiring a few years earlier but it turned out ok.”
In 1974, as now, credit wasn’t very readily available but once the shop opened, a close eye was kept on what people wanted.
“I remember when we started, I went to the bank looking for a loan but there wasn’t a hope. What we did was start off with the essentials and we had a little notebook at the back of the counter and if people asked for an item three times, we’d go away and get it.”
Economic tides have ebbed and flowed in the last 36 years, sometimes very quickly but they made little difference to Lemenagh Stores, according to Dominic.
“It was much the same, the recession or the boom didn’t have much of an effect. You’d still be dealing with people coming and going from work and the locals that would be coming to get their day-to-day things. You’re in an era where most people are going to Lidl, Aldi, Dunnes and Tesco but they still bought the basics here.”
Despite a fondness for his business, he’s pleased to be moving to another chapter of his life. “I’m happy we’re retiring while we have the health and hopefully we’ll enjoy it for a few years,” he said.