Kerry’s ‘Top of the Shops’ as stores win major Irish titles
YOU can forget about Grafton Street and don’t waste time trawling Henry Street.
In fact, if you’re searching for the best shop in Ireland you can ignore Dublin altogether and head straight for Tralee.
Take a trip down Rock Street and the foot of the street you’ll find Garvey’s SuperValu which has just been crowned National Store of the Year at the Irish Retail Excellence Awards.
The Tralee shop – which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and underwent a massive €2.2 million revamp in 2016 – beat off competition from the some of Ireland’s best known luxury shops to win the prestigious title.
Garvey’s SuperValu on Rock Street – which also picked up the Supermarket of the Year award at the ceremony in Killarney’s Malton Hotel on Saturday – is the first Supermarket to win the award in the competition’s 20 year history.
In all, 600 outlets across the country entered the competition with the contenders whittled down to 30 finalists over several months.
The judging panel, which included several international retail experts, was highly impressed with the Rock Street store, describing it in glowing terms as “probably the best supermarket in the world”.
Garvey’s Managing Director Kevin McCarthy said the award was the culmination of three year’s hard work and was entirely due to dedication of the shop’s 100 staff who work tirelessly every day to deliver the very best service possible to their loyal customers.
Retail Excellence aren’t the first to recognise the Rock Street store.
Last December the shop was named as the overall winner at The Kerryman’s inaugural Business Awards.
The celebrations on Saturday night weren’t confined to Tralee as Killarney also had reason to cheer.
Vodafone’s outlet on College Street in Killarney also won a major accolade when it was named as the Retail Excellence Ireland’s Electronic and Tech Store of the Year, fighting off competition from leading tech stores across Ireland to win the sought after title.