Watch: A look inside Douglas Village Shopping Centre ahead of re-opening
Still from video by Cork City Fire Brigade via their Twitter Account. Douglas Village Shopping Centre fire aftermath showing buckled steel beams
“We had the flood (2012) and the fire (2019) so at that stage, I asked ‘What’s next? A pandemic?’” recalls Michael O’Connor, who never, in his wildest dreams, imagined it happening.
Despite the biblical nature of the calamities that have befallen traders at Douglas Village Shopping Centre in the last decade, they are preparing once again to welcome back shoppers.
Next Thursday, Michael, pharmacist at Pharmacy First Plus, will re-open his doors at the centre where his father set up the family business in 1976.
“I was never tempted to throw in the towel. I never considered it. It was my father’s business before me,” he says.
His main objective was to hang on to his loyal staff. They moved physically to a unit at St Patrick’s Woollen Mills, but were largely sustained, Michael says, by a loyal dispensing business and by moving business online.
The pandemic didn’t help - there was a 50% drop-off in business.
“We just had to survive and the goal was to get us to this point,” he says.
“But I would consider Douglas Village my business home so I’m delighted to be re-opening. The feedback I’m getting from customers is that they can’t wait for us to open up.”
“It’s like waiting to pull off a plaster, you know it has to be done.”
The pandemic and the lockdown it brought had the opposite effect on Patrick Bresnan’s business which he had moved immediately online in the wake of the fire.
“The fire was on a Saturday and we were 100% online by the following Wednesday,” Patrick says.
During the first lockdown and with the offer of home delivery within 24 hours, Bresnan’s Butchers online business doubled.
“We got a nice bump from lockdown, but at the end of the day, people want something more tangible, they want to be able to come in, chat to the butcher, ask for his advice on how to cook their purchase.”
Customers of the 120+ year old business can look forward to a new shopping experience in Douglas Village next week as the shop has been revamped.
In nearby café Puccino’s, manager Joe Plunkett is preparing for a takeaway service in the short term. The restrictions mean he can’t seat customers inside.
“It’s been a long 15 months and now that the end is in sight, we are getting very excited. It will be takeaway initially but we are hoping to have customers sitting in if we can get back to Level 2 before Christmas.”
Not so fortunate are Tk Maxx who will have to wait for an easing of restrictions. Staff were onsite yesterday readying the store for that time. Stock was also arriving into M&S, with the foodhall due to open next week, but not the clothing department.
Leading pet retailer Maxi Zoo will not be returning and neither will ladies fashion outlets Golden Spiderweb or Partners in Fashion. Outlets such as Book Station, Trespass, Cici & Boo, Homefront and travel agents J Barter are planning to return.
There have been queries from new prospective tenants, according to centre manger Bartosz Mieszala.
The library is due to re-open in the third week of December, but there will be no Santa.
“We looked at every option, even to see if we could do it on Zoom, but there were just too many obstacles,” says Mr Mieszala.
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