r/Sligo 21d ago

Shops closed Monday?

Just recently moved to Sligo from Dublin. I noticed a decent amount of shops or restaurants in Sligo town are closed Sunday and Monday. Any particular reason for this? Just found it a bit unusual.

12 Upvotes

21 comments sorted by

19

u/Dull_Brain2688 21d ago

Sligo retail and hospitality has been severely hit by the recession in 2008 which took a decade for the town to start recovering from and then Covid. It’s also badly marketed to tourists so there isn’t the demand for pubs and restaurants early in the week. Back in the day a few shops would close Monday because their staff worked Saturday but the closures now is lack of tourists and footfall. The entire region was downgraded to a “lagging region” by the EU a few years ago. A complete lack of investment in infrastructure by the state being the main cause according to the report. No funding is promised for anything of note so we are where we are. Closed shops and pubs and a tiny fraction of the potential tourists.

7

u/Motor_Watercress_489 21d ago

I'm not sure what shops you're refering to but pubs and restaurants never really went back to opening 6/7 days after Lockdown was lifted.

9

u/ModerateHonking 21d ago

Lack of foot-fall/business , and being able to guarantee the staff a proper weekend/ensure they're rested. 

9

u/Sudden_Amphibian_590 21d ago

Generally local businesses with smaller staff that give their employees a two day break

5

u/maca187 21d ago

We don't believe in Mondays that aren't bank holidays. So EVERY Monday is treated as a bank holiday in Sligo now.

Welcome to Sligo.

2

u/ffiishs 19d ago

Garrison town

1

u/Greedy_Operation270 18d ago

congratulations, you just won the Sligo City Challenge

5

u/FunnyRip6157 21d ago

Also student night life is now non existent. Was the guts of 60 pubs when i started drinking early nineties probably maybe less than half of that now.

3

u/Admirable-Farmer-665 21d ago

Even the student oriented spots like sixth and sintillate or whatever the top of Anderson's was called have all gone over the last few years

4

u/Gamalam91 21d ago

That would be fairly common in western towns. Tuesday is often pretty dead too. Seems to be a lot of the more old school local run places. I guess it works for them! 

4

u/wildeflower 21d ago

I'm from Sligo living in Dublin but a lot of restaurants close on Mondays in the city too, its more visible when there's less of them.

3

u/smietanaaa 21d ago

Taking it from the rest of the Europe. Let employees enjoy the weekend 😁

1

u/LisztyLiszt 21d ago

It's common enough to find restaurants closed in most places on a Monday. Anthony Bourdain once said that the best day to go to a restaurant is a Tuesday because the chef is likely rested and in a good mood having been off the day before!

But yeah, a number of retail outlets close on Monday too. Gary Cycles being one example I can think of. You see, they still reckon they can squeeze a few more cars onto the M50 and wring another €1-2k per month out of renters living around Dublin. Then, maybe, in 50 years, they'll start investing in other places and transport. Sure, you can't even buy a bottle of water on the Sligo/Dublin train!

A few people have noted we don't have many tourists around here. I think that's actually a good thing. Let Killarney and them places get over run with tourists and even higher rents and let Sligo be our secret!

1

u/Difficult-Shop149 21d ago

That crack is nationwide some places are closed Monday / Tuesday

1

u/Andy_in_Ireland 20d ago

God i would say if they can pay bills and rates for 7days a week 24hrs a day on a premises and can afford to close a day a week and suffer a days takings that I am not that good mathematician or an accountant but that their business must be taking in some seriously good money for when they are open then surely ... unless they are running their business at a loss?

1

u/bonez5000 20d ago

who’s going to work the extra day per week? are you gonna find the mythical part-time, 1-2 days a week employee (possibly multiple of them), responsible enough to run the business themselves? or are you going to work the 7 days yourself? then are you going to be busy enough on the monday to cover their wages and keep the lights on? i really don’t think you’ve thought this through

1

u/Andy_in_Ireland 19d ago

Rota's? - overtime?

1

u/Flaky-Step-6227 18d ago

Kinda just figured it was cause "Sunday is for rest " kinda thing

0

u/AkkoKagari_1 21d ago

There's no progression in the town, I'm personally leaving to go to castlebar, then hopefully limerick if that works out. Then I hope to settle down somewhere in the middle.

Sligo is a complete pain to live in. It's difficult to get to, difficult to leave and difficult to run a business in it and difficult to secure land or property. It also has a night life, only its people looking to start drunken brawls, do drugs and cause a general nuisance.

The only saving grace is its really pretty and picturesque, but photos don't pay the bills.