No Santa, no puppies but plenty of turkey and ham as Douglas Village re-opens
Painting at the entrance to the car park lifts at the Douglas Village Shopping Centre which is set to open on November 12. Picture: Dan Linehan
NO Santa, no puppies, but hundreds of turkeys and hams, and a spirit of hope and goodwill, are all in (or out) of the mix in the long-awaited re-opening of Douglas Village Shopping Centre a week from today.
Construction workers and tradesmen have been working seven days a week for the past three weeks in the race to have the Centre ready for its November 12 reopening.
So too have traders such as Patrick Bresnan of Bresnan’s Butchers whose computer programming degree was put to good use in getting the family business up-and-running online within days of a fire that destroyed the shopping centre in August 2019.
Bresnan’s, in the centre since 1979, went “100% online” and quickly built up a successful home delivery service.
Ironically, the arrival of Covid-19 in March boosted that business, to the extent that it doubled during the first lockdown, and expanded to delivery of other products such as vegetables, rice, and pasta.
When the shop, which has been totally revamped, opens next week, it will do so without Liam Bresnan, whom Patrick, his son, said is “easing into retirement”.
While the online business helped sustain them during almost 15 months of closure, Patrick says he is “looking forward to being open again and interacting with the customers face-to-face”.
They are also busy gearing up for the Christmas market and expect to sell about 500 turkeys and 500 hams in the lead-in period.
His nearby neighbour in the shopping centre, Michael O’Connor of Pharmacy First Plus, (his father opened the business in 1976) is another trader whose business is essential retail, so he too will be reopening next week.
His “very loyal dispensing business” helped sustain them during the centre’s closure.
While they were glad to be able to move their physical store to nearby St Patrick’s Woollen Mills following the fire, they did not enjoy the same footfall. Michael said they did manage to hold onto all their staff — “they are the heart and soul of the business” — and they also succeeded in developing an online business (oconnorspharmacydouglas.ie), thanks largely to Michael’s wife, who has a background in software.
Joe Plunkett, manager of Puccino’s Cafe, said they are looking forward to welcoming their customers back, albeit initially they will be operating as a takeaway rather than a sitdown café.
Shops such as Tk Maxx, the Book Station, Trespass, Homefront, CiCi & Boo, travel agents J Barter, will have to wait it out until the current restrictions lift.
Unfortunately the centre has lost a number of tenants, such as the post office which moved to rival centre Douglas Court in the weeks after the fire and leading pet retailer Maxi Zoo. A number of fashion outlets are also gone.
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