Is it finally a ‘Dunne’ deal?
While it is nothing like the excitement that greeted the arrival of Dunnes Stores in Dundalk in the 1960’s there is still considerable interest in town generated by the erection last week of the ‘sale agreed’ sign on the company’s first store in town in Park Street.
As all townspeople will know this prime town centre site has been vacant for over a decade, and in the years since there have been constant rumours surrounding new tenants, and demands on the local authority to either purchase the site for retail development or to apply pressure on Dunnes to either re-open or sell the site.
Dunnes as we all know revolutionized shopping in Ireland when they opened the first combined supermarket, hardware and clothing stores in the country, unleashing, as they did, a so called ‘shopping frenzy’ as shoppers flocked to their stores.
Their first store opened in Cork in 1944, and their policy of accepting low profit margins in order to offer the lowest prices was an immediate hit with families working on very tight budgets.
Stores opened in the major population centres such as Dublin, Limerick and Waterford and public opinion led to a clamour in Dundalk - even to the extent that the Urban Council added their voice - to the demand for the company to open a store in the town.
Naturally the majority of the town’s traders didn’t add their voice to that demand, for traditional grocery and clothing outlets, most of whom were family owned and had been trading for generations, knew from the experience of other towns where Dunnes had opened that they would find it very difficult to compete.
Nonetheless when Dunnes did open in Park Street with clothing and household goods located at the front of the store and groceries at the rear, it was an occasion for celebration, creating a great buzz in town.
In addition the fact that the location chosen by Dunnes, a previously vacant plot, in the centre of town, gave a great boost to some businesses, and as out of town shoppers were attracted to sample a new concept in retail.
Gradually however as parking became a necessity for all major supermarkets, and because of the limited parking space at the rear of Dunnes in Park Street, the company moved to new locations in Ard Easmuinn, and later The Marshes and the inner relief road.
For a time they continued to trade in Park Street, even refurbishing the store after it was extensively damaged when incendiary devices were planted in the store allegedly by a Loyalist paramilitary group during the height of the “Troubles”.
Ultimately however the company outgrew the Park Street location, mainly because of the parking requirements, but paradoxically traders who opposed the arrival of Dunnes in the town centre, now bemoaned their departure, for inevitably there was a dramatic drop in the footfall of shoppers in the town’s main streets that ultimately led to the closure of a number of established small businesses.
In the decade since the closure there have been constant demands for Dunnes to either re-open the store, as a convenience store, or to lease or sell the site to a variety of well known and interested national retailers, mostly in the clothing line.
Dunnes, as is or was their policy, resisted the demands to sell or lease to a competitor, and because of their financial strength were able to virtually sit on a valuable site.
Now it appears that the firm have had a change of heart regarding vacant prime sites which they have closed to move to out of town locations, and recently disposed of a town centre site in Limerick to the local university.
Information on the possible sale of the Dundalk site is difficult to acquire for traditionally Dunnes have always been publicity sky on these matters, but there is a genuine hope, indeed a desire, that the site will be developed in such a manner to bring new life to the town.
Of course it was always the hope that the local authority would purchase the site for development and to enhance the road network in the area and perhaps develop some retail outlets, but they never seemed keen on the idea.
Now until the new owners emerge and their plans for the premises are unveiled speculation will be rife, fuelling an interest in the matter that was last encountered in the 1960’s when Dunnes first opened their doors in Dundalk.