On Wednesday 19th October last, over thirty retailers from the high streets of Thurles attended a meeting in Hayes Hotel Liberty Square, Thurles, to form a Traders Unite Association. This association is inclusive of all traders in Liberty Square, Friar Street, West Gate, Croke Street, Baker Street, Parnell Street, The Mall, Kickham Street and Mitchell Street. The meeting was very positive and participation from traders was informative and uplifting, with brilliant ideas put forward for consideration.
The agenda and aspirations addressed at this Association meeting, chaired by Joan Pollard Carew, (Michael’s Jewellers) came under the following headings:-
(1)Parking issues; (2) Traffic management; (3) Promoting individuality of shopping experience on our high streets; (4) Group advertising campaign, and (5) Music on our streets for Christmas 2011.
Thurles Traders Unite Association Meeting
Endeavouring to address parking issues for Thurles customers, a decision was made to offer free parking to all customers. Indeed at the time of going to press tonight, notices are being designed for shop windows and are expected to be be displayed in participating stores within the next seven days.
All customer who spend a minimum of €10 in Thurles shops, bearing this notice, will be refunded 30 minutes of their parking charges. Smart shoppers will be aware that they can actually, by visiting 4 shops, receive a €2 refund, despite having only paid €1.20 for parking.
It was also mooted that if the Town Council and traders could carve out a deal, where the old style parking discs could be made available, then traders could actually give a disc to their customers and everyone would gain considerably. To this end it was agreed that a delegation from this new Association would meet with the Councillors and Executives of the Town Council and these ideas would be amongst other issues for future discussion.
On Thurles traffic management the mood of the meeting confirmed that the present pedestrian lights system was causing unnecessary traffic jams and numerous safety issues were raised. Again these will be debated when the Association meets with Town Council officials.
To further promote high street shopping in Thurles the Traders Unite Association are considering numerous advertising packages, involving local and national media, in an effort to sustain present levels of employment and information for customers.
Thurles high streets have numerous outlets, selling a diverse range of goods and offering services, thus offering consumers a much better choice. As most shops are family owned and run these businesses can also offer a much more personal service.
The meeting was informed of a Christmas Market to take place in Liberty Square on 11th December. Stall holders will be decked out in period costumes with a proposed Faction Fight , together with Christmas music in the background, under the usual wonderful display of Christmas lighting. This event promises to be an exciting day for all the family. It will also showcase Thurles town centre, and children please note, Santa Claus has accepted an invitation to be present at this event. (More about this Christmas Market and it’s organisers in the coming days, so do stay tuned.)
Greater use of our towns successful Thurles.Info website was also encouraged, this service is free and should now be utilised by local traders for promotions and offers in their stores. The new Hidden Tipperary website is also a wonderful medium of both information and education for the county. Tourism or at least the lack of same was another issue raised, as this industry is not tapped into, in Thurles. Industry means business and as a group this association intends to now promote our town as a real tourist destination.
It was decided, by this meeting, not to form a traditional committee, rather it was felt that hierarchy was of no advantage and would be actually more of a hindrance to the future success of this new Association. The decision then to form a task force of ten traders to handle the day to day running of the Association and thus form smaller groups, to focus on current issues relating to traders, was adopted.
This newly elected task force is a diverse group of traders from across the retail industry in Thurles and are named as follows:-
John Butler, Paul Scully, Gabriella McLoughney, Catriona Griffin, Frances Boyle, William Kinane, Diarmud Moran, Paul McEvitt, George Willoughby and Joan Pollard Carew.
The next meeting of the Association’s task force will be October 25th next at 8.00pm in Hayes Hotel and progress reports will issue on a regular basis.
Joan Pollard Carew, who chaired the meeting, expressed gratitude on behalf of the Association, to the Management of Hayes Hotel, who provided accommodation for this event, free of charge.
Picture courtesy G.Willoughby, Thurles.
Congratulations George. A brilliant move this will be a huge say for Thurles Traders and there concerns. It was great that “Hayes Hotel” provided free accomodation, but then I have heard nothing but good from Tourists who have stayed at “Hayes Hotel” George as you know we will continue to promote Thurles as a great place for Tourists.!! Well now that we can buy in our supermarket “RED KELLYS” Traditional recipe salad dressings,and we all know where the Kelly family originate from that is an ace up our sleeve. But the funny side to this is, on the back of the bottle is printed “RED KELLYS” AUSTRALIAN MOST WANTED.”It comes all the way from Tasmania. We 3 girls just stood in the supermarket in fits of laughter when we saw these sauces. What a great talking point for us to promote Thurles.!!!!