This article is from page 10 of the 2008-05-06 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 10 JPG
A PERCEIVED lack of choice is pushing customers away from Ennis and towards larger urban centres, ac- cording to Retail Excellence Ireland.
Commenting on the findings of a re- cent survey, Crest Retail Excellence Ireland CEO, David Fitzsimons said shoppers wanted big-name brands like Marks and Spencers and River Island.
Crest Retail Excellence Ireland was commissioned by the Aisling
Chiosoig Partnership to survey at- titudes of Ennis residents to current shopping choice in Ennis, as well as shopping habits and attitude of resi- dents to the Cusack Park project.
The Aisling Chiosdig Partnership plans a €350 million mixed-use de- velopment to be known as the Riv- erSide Quarter. The 10-acre Cusack Park site is currently the subject of a rezoning submission to Ennis Town Council by Clare GAA.
The survey was carried out in En- nis town over the period March 1-8
last. A sample of 839 respondents were interviewed on three separate days. The survey found that there are 757,500 habitual ‘Out of Ennis’ shopping trips made by Ennis resi- dents annually and that 83 per cent of Ennis residents believe the town re- quires a stronger selection of stores. Mr Fitzsimons said, “The figures are pretty unequivocal. You have al- most 800,000 shopping trips made outside of Ennis and the average spend is close to €100. Ninety per cent of people spend more than €50
on an average shopping trip outside of Ennis. And when people travel they are more likely to buy more. It does appear, or the findings of the Survey appear to indicate, that an aw- ful lot of money is going out of the town because of a perceived lack of selection.”
The survey found that when ques- tioned on their preferred retail out- lets, there was an overwhelming response from shoppers in favour of big-name stores.
Mr Fitzsimons said, “It cuts up pret-
ty differently between age groups but definitely the most favoured selection was Marks and Spencers. Prompted, or when given a Selection of stores to choose from, Marks and Spen- cers came out on top by a fair old bit. Women tended to go for stores like Brown Thomas, while men went for shops like Homebase and Argos. Younger people indicated that they would like to see shops like River Island or Jack and Jones, which was popular with young men, in Ennis.” Limerick and Galway were cited as