Independent retailers ‘don’t get the same playing field’
THE delayed reintroduction of Click & Collect has been very damaging to clothes shops, according to a well known menswear shop owner.
Paul Dunne runs Jack Dunne Menswear on Gorey’s Main Street, but for the past few months he has seen custom drop off significantly as people don’t want to ask him to deliver to their homes.
‘It’s been difficult,’ he said. ‘In November we were allowed to do Click & Collect. It was coming up to Christmas; people were shopping because they were buying presents. Now I either post stuff out or deliver it myself.’
Like many retailers, Paul is showing his stock on Facebook and Instagram through smart videos, but there is no substitute to calling to the door and seeing the clothing, he said.
‘If people could call to the door and pick things up they would be more inclined to buy online. Some feel they are putting me out if I have to deliver. If we had Click & Collect back, it would be an awful lot better; I’d be able to have my door open and a table there and a screen against the door. People could call and pick up what they wanted.’
He said payment can be facilitated at the door, just as people pay for their food shopping.
‘They can pay with a card and I’d be at the other side of a screen and yet you can go into any supermarket or chemist or certain shops that are open because they are taking shelter under some sort of an umbrella and you have the national big boys who are open. As independent shop owners we don’t get the same playing field. We are what makes towns quirky and we are being penalised whereas supermarket chains are getting away with selling things we’re not allowed to sell.’
Giving the example of flower sales, Paul said supermarkets can sell thousands of bouquets for Easter and Mother’s Day and yet florists can’t hand out flowers to customers outside their premises.
‘In my case, if they could come to the door I could hold up an item and show it to them. You’d know their size by looking at the customer.’
Paul sometimes delivers several items to a house and calls around the next day to collect any item that isn’t desired.
‘People can send stuff back. Of course you have to do that. I’ve dropped bags of clothing to people’s homes and they’ve taken what they wanted; mainly it’s leisure wear. What we are doing behind closed doors is only a drop in the ocean.’
Paul said his wedding clothes offering whereby wedding parties rent out suits is an integral part of his business.
‘That’s a huge part of our trade. On a Saturday morning of a wedding taking place, the first two groups of people through the door are for a wedding. It’s a huge sector, bigger than people realise, because it takes in beauticians and hairdressers as well. The only suits I’m selling are for funerals.’
Like many retailers, Paul is hoping Covid case numbers remain relatively low and that Click & Collect will return in late April and not in May.
‘It’s important to be open for June. We need that to have a good summer. If regulations allow and people can travel to holiday homes in the locality, that will be huge for us. Holidaymakers shop here when they come for their holidays because they are so busy in Dublin they don’t have time to shop in peace. I bought my summer stock last September as I expected we’d be open. I’m buying autumn stock at the moment.’
Jack Dunne & Son has been trading since 1993 and Paul has never endured such a torrid year.
‘They say opening a business is the hardest but this tops that off.’
He said Wexford County Council’s waiving of rates and supports have been helpful, as has the wage subsidy scheme.
‘The 20km travel in from Wicklow from next week will make a difference,’ he said.
IF PEOPLE COULD CALL TO THE DOOR AND PICK THINGS UP, THEY’D BE MORE INCLINED TO BUY ONLINE