‘The riots haven’t put people off’: Dublin retailers largely in good cheer ahead of Christmas

If it wasn’t for the Black Friday sale sign still hanging in a Foot Locker shop on O’Connell Street that has remained closed since being looted three weeks ago, it would have been business as usual in Dublin city centre with little over a week to Christmas Day.

If anything it is business better than usual this year with shops, street traders and umbrella groups representing the sector all upbeat about prospects for the days ahead.

In the immediate aftermath of the riot on November 23rd which saw shops looted, buses and cars burned out and a Luas tram destroyed, there were fears the unprecedented unrest would leave the Christmas season in tatters for businesses in the capital.

It hasn’t.

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Arnotts was targeted by looters just over three weeks ago but at midday on Saturday, most departments in the store were busy with queues forming at tills as people lined up with armfuls of gifts.

“It’s mad busy today, so it is,” one of the street traders outside on Henry Street remarked.

“The riots haven’t put people off at all,” the woman, who asked not to be identified, said. “I think the guards are after doing a good job with things back to normal now.”

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That sense of normality was being felt across the city. Suzanne Monaghan was sitting in the back office of Monaghan’s Cashmere on South Anne Streeet. The shop is one of the oldest independent traders in the city having been opened by her parents more than 60 years ago.

“It was very quiet that weekend after the riots and it was quite worrying. What happened was horrendous obviously but since then we’ve seen a huge influx of gardaí and people have realised it’s okay, it’s safe to come back.”

And come back they have, she said.

“We had probably our best-ever year last year and things are looking really good for this year. We have been very busy for the last two weeks and it has been very positive, so fingers crossed it stays that way.”

Arnold Dillon, director of Retail Ireland, the Ibec group representing the sector, was similarly upbeat and said that this weekend “the mood is positive. Christmas is falling at good time for retail, with a full week’s trading and a weekend before Christmas Day. There is still a significant trading window before Christmas Day.”

He noted that online trading had gone “particularly well” in recent days, with some retailers reporting an “unexpected surge over the last two weeks”.

He anticipated that spending in December would be up about 5 per cent on last year with “the majority of stores trading ahead of last year”.

He noted that footfall in Dublin had recovered well since last month’s disturbances and in recent days was “significantly up on last year”.

Jean McCabe of Retail Excellence was somewhat more downbeat but hopeful there was time left before Christmas for things to turn around.

She said traders in Dublin city centre had “a bit of ground to make up to get to where [they were] last year” with shops selling clothes, shoes, wellness and beauty hoping for a happier run-in to Christmas Day.

She suggested that Christmas Day falling on a Monday might not help retailers. “Straight away after next weekend it is Christmas Day whereas other years when Christmas Day falls on a Wednesday or Thursday, there are the weekends and an additional three days leading into Christmas Day, which gives retailers an opportunity to kind of mop up. This year we don’t have any extra days and so it could prove a challenging Christmas I think for retail.”

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Safety and security in the city also remains a worry for traders. Almost a third of Dublin businesses identified criminality as one of their top-three sources of concern in a newly published survey, a fourfold increase in less than a year.

Of the roughly 170 firms that participated in the Dublin Chamber Business Outlook survey, 95 per cent felt there was a need for greater Garda visibility around the capital. The survey, published on Monday, was conducted before last month’s riots.

Asked to identify the top-three concerns for their businesses at present, the respondents cited well-established issues like staff recruitment, housing and increased costs. However, the big mover in terms of sentiment compared to previous surveys was on safety and security, with 31 per cent of companies listing it among their top-three concerns, up from just 7 per cent in the first quarter of 2023.

”Safety is a growing issue for Dublin businesses,” the report states.

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