'People are coming in from all over Munster': City centre retailers report busy Christmas trading 

Business owners in the city centre have said visitors are “blown away” by shopping options in Cork, as they report busy trading in the run up to Christmas.

With the big day just around the corner, there has been a heavy influx of shoppers to Cork city throughout December. 

Retailers are attributing this increase in footfall to the quality of the city’s retail offering, helped by the opening of a number of outlets in recent weeks.

Eddie Mullins, owner of Fitzgerald Menswear, told The Echo: “People are coming in from all over Munster, and even the south of Ireland and beyond too — they’re saying they see it as more of a shopping destination as opposed to Dublin because there’s no heart to Dublin city, it’s a bit detached, it tends to meander, whereas Cork is more concentrated.

“People are blown away by what’s happening here — Cork has become extremely vibrant.

“There’s about four or five new shops after popping up over the last two months — there’s a great buzz to the city.

“As late-night shopping goes on, things are starting to ramp up. It’s getting busier and busier as we approach Christmas weekend — every day it’s building, we’ve had a long run in, which is great.”

“There’s a hum on the streets, a lot of businesses have made an effort this year and have taken that extra step — it’s one of the nicest buzzes I’ve seen in a long, long time,” said Mr Mullins.

“The city council have also been top of their game this year, the streets are spotless out there, so I think people have come together to create a very special atmosphere in the city centre, and for retailers, we’re very pleased.”

Elsewhere, co-owner of Pinocchio’s Toys & Gifts on Paul St, Wyon Stansfeld, also reported a positive trading period.

“It’s been quite good for us overall.” 

We’ve sold a lot of very traditional things like trains and dolls — if I had to pick two things, those are probably the things people are particularly interested in this year,” he said.

“Our dolls don’t do anything fancy — they don’t sing, they don’t dance, you have to use your imagination.

“We’re getting an awful lot of ‘I used to shop here years ago’, which is great. There’s a nice atmosphere in the city.

“We’re starting to run out of stuff, which is always a good sign — Saturday was probably our busiest day, 10 days before Christmas, it was almost like the shopping you’d see on the 23rd [of December] rather than the week before.

“I would say there’ll be another busy rush [before Christmas] — it’s very unlikely that there wouldn’t be. I think this year has been better than last year.

“There definitely seems to be more of a feeling of trying to support the city centre this year, there’s lots of things happening around the place.

“There’s new retailers opening and, from our point of view, that’s really nice to see because we’ve seen coffee shop after coffee shop closing.”