There’s a saying that an ill wind always blow somebody good and this is certainly the case in one action taken by John Donohoe of Donohoe Electrical in Navan when in the early days of the pandemic he ordered in a consignment of electric hair clippers so that the hirsute ladies and gentlemen of Navan could turn out neatly coiffured!
“They just can’t be got”, he said, “they flew out the door. I suppose everybody is making an attempt at home hairdressing”. Donohoe is one of the lucky traders who can resume business on Monday but there are many others who will have to wait for the Government green flag before they can open their doors again. I’ve just completed a survey among retailers in the town which shows that many retailers are struggling against the effects of the Covid-19 outbreak but are hoping that the own can bounce back when the pandemic eases.
The survey of thirty or so traders in the main shopping areas of Trimgate and Watergate Streets pointed to a sharp increase in business at butcher shops (as some customers avoid the crowding in supermarkets) but there is a less hopeful picture for women’s and men ‘s fashion stores, pubs and cafes. Many traders are convinced that they will have to work in a different way in the future with much more emphasis on the internet to promote business and draw in potential customers. The fashion stores are severely impacted because they had stocked up for Spring and Summer before the lockdown. And business among auctioneers has slowed because of their inability to show potential buyers around properties but they are continuing at a low level behind the scenes.
When I caught up with John Donohoe by phone at Kennedy Road he was restructuring the interior of the store to accommodate social distances measures when he reopens on Monday. He has been operating behind the scenes while the store has been closed in recent weeks. There was a balance to be struck between members of the staff who could come in to work and those who, because some family members were vulnerable or had underlying medical conditions, had to stay at home. He has now created a “flow area” in the store where customers can circulate without having to come into close contact with others and others areas where staff will be isolated but still, able to deal with customers’ queries.
The store was opened in the mid-1960s. How does he feel about the present crisis? “I’m in business so I have to be optimistic. We’re lucky to be on the East coast – in areas where people have traditionally depended on tourism, they are facing devastation. For that reason I think we will escape the worst of the effects of the pandemic. You have to put up your stall and embrace the opportunities”.
For 75 years the Barry family has carried on a barber shop business at Watergate Street. It took a pandemic of the proportion of Covid-19 to force its doors to close for several weeks now. Gerry Barry carries on the trade started by his late father Aidan and is proud of the tradition carried down through all these decades. Speaking from his home in Kells he said that he closed up the week before St Patrick’s Day. “I thought it was the safe thing to do for our own sake and the customers’ sake. In my memory it’s the longest time we have ever closed. We don’t even close for holidays – we stagger them out!. There were still quite a few customers ringing up to see if they could have haircuts but he had to rule that out”. He has worked at putting in special measures to open his doors again when the Government gives the signal. “We have special gowns for the staff, each staff member will have their own instruments, ourselves and customers will be masked up, and we will let a certain number into the premises at any one time”.
“Navan is a good town, a prosperous town and it will do well. It will bounce back. The one thing I’d say about having to close is that at least the weather has been good – and there’s not a weed in my garden!”
Up to the imposition of the lockdown, Michael McGoldrick’s music and sales shop at Brews Hill had been open six days a week. He just had to close and has no complaints about that. As he said “there were no customers around in any case – people were scared for the first few weeks of this [the pandemic]. “It’s going to be a whole new world for everyone after this. I had no online presence up to this but I’m working on that now. I’m going to reopen on 8th June if we’re allowed and we will havr to play it day by day after that. The only frustrating thing is seeing couriers flying about delivering goods from foreign suppliers. I’m trying to stay cautiously optimistic”.
At the Central bar and restaurant at Trimgate Street, the doors have been closed for weeks – and that includes the popular “inside-outside” café at the front of the premises where the town denizens could while away a half hour or two over their coffees and cakes. The 110 members of staff in the restaurant/bar (and the associated Bective Restaurant in Kells) have been laid off. Owner Michael Gavigan, who is also part of REA T&J Gavigan auctioneers, points to the US as an example of how we could recover following the fallout from the pandemic. He says the “Roaring 20s” was a “gold” period there whereas Europe embraced austerity.
“If we follow that European example into austerity, then God bless Ireland. In our business, the Government will need to put VAT to zero and slash excise duty. Otherwise, you won’t be able to open your doors, you just won’t be able to break even”. However, he remains optimistic about the future. “Towns like Navan, Trim and Kells are strong towns and they will come back. On the auctioneering side of our business, it’s quiet although there is still a strong demand for property. When people get back to work and get money into their pockets, things will come back”.
There aren’t many businesses in Navan that can boast a family history going back 200 years but at the sign of the clock in Watergate Street, Mary Walsh and her son Ronan are still carrying on the family jewellery business, albeit with a temporary closure in operation. Mrs Walsh, who has been greeting customers at the distinctive shop for decades, has had to “cocoon”. Ronan has been dealing with orders placed with the firm prior to the lockdown. “I’d be optimistic that a vaccine will be found£, he said, £but I suppose there is a danger that the lockdown will be lifted too soon. I suppose one thing that might come out of the crisis is that people might support the town that they live in. The small businesses need the business much more than the multinationals do”.
John Joyce of John Joyce Interiors, also in Watergate Street, is waiting for a June date to be announced so that he can reopen his business. “I’m 40 years here and I’ve never seen anything like this. This is different. Nothing will ever be the same again. Life for the next six to 24 months will be entirely different. It’ll be like putting out each fire as it comes up”. Like many other business people, John Joyce has to deal with standing costs even though his doors are closed. However, he is determined to resume business. His only fear is that customers may fear coming out of their homes again. “I know a person in her 50s and she hasn’t left her home since this thing started. But you can’t lie down under this thing – you have to face it even if the world has changed a good bit”.
Publican Noel Foley in Watergate Street is determined that he won’t bring his staff back to work unless he can do it safely. He feels he might be in a better trading place than some country pubs when he gets the green light to reopen but he foresees big changes in the way people socialise.
The Room 8 Restaurant at Watergate Street , open more than four years, has been closed for only one week since the beginning of the crisis and already Geraldine Cosgrove Nelson and her brother Aidan, have found a new way of working, now operating takeaway prepared meals. They had been available for phone-in orders on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays but business has built up to such an extent that they have now added on Wednesdays and Thursdays. “We just had to adapt to a new style of working. We’re doing takeaway but still maintaining the highest standards. About the reopening, we think about it all the time. We just don’t know what is going to happen at the end of July. Social distancing will be huge for us - it will make doing business nearly impossible. We’re really missing the regular customers. Navan is a great little town and Watergate Street has really come up in the last few years. I think what’s coming out of all this is that people are conscious of where they spend their money and they ought to keep it in the town”.
Needs must. This was the case when Eimear Reynolds of Bakealicious in Cornmarket had to close her café. Before the pandemic struck, the company had built up a strong reputation for its “occasion cakes”. Two days before it became obvious that closure was inevitable, she shuttered the café. An online offering for cakes was launched on 30th March. The firm used Spotify and then hired DPD couriers to shift cakes to their destinations “in Meath but also from Kerry to Donegal”. She had to let her staff go at an early stage of Covid. She studied at Cathal Brugha Street in Dublin but when she graduated in 2012 there were no jobs so she sold cakes at farmers’ markets, and at the Meath company Sheridan’s. “This Covid thing is something you can’t fight. I couldn’t keep the doors open at Cornmarket. I really miss the customers coming in and out and you’d get to know them. There was no them and us – we were all there together for a laugh and a chat. I’ll keep an online impact but the physical shop won’t be the same. We just have to come up with new ways of reaching out to people.
Newsagent Joe Tierney’s newsagent’s shop just around the corner from Cornmarket was established in 1895 and not even two world wars or the Spanish flu, which took the lives of more than 20,000 Irish people in 2018, prevented the shop from trading. His is one of the businesses considered essential so his doors are still open. “This whole thing is surreal, it is going down into the very fabric of our lives. We’re thankful at least that we are able to continue trading but I fear for the economy. There may be 2-3 years of hardship ahead of us. I think the Government has done well in distributing information but also challenging misinformation. The way you look at all this depends on what business you’re in – for instance I look at the Central here beside me and the number of people who had to be laid off. These are people who would be spending in every other shop in the street. There is relief on rates but where is the county council going to get money to keep services going when there is no money coming in?
Another newsagent Jimmy Reilly at Brews Hill has been in business for 30 years and has never seen anything like the present situation. “These are tough days, they are weird. I carry a small amount of groceries and people come in so they can avoid the supermarkets. I think things will come back – this town is strong enough to do it. I would be optimistic about the future. I open here seven days a week and I take Sunday afternoon off. Aren’t I doing well?!”
Independent Councillor Francis Deane is a former chairman of the Navan Traders’ Association. “A big issue for quite a number of traders is the fact that they had bought in stocks of Spring and Summer wear before the lockdown but then had to shut their doors. There has been friction when a lot of these people have seen the big chain stores being able to open their clothing departments while they have to remain shut. For instance, Tesco opened its drapery and was selling stuff at half price. These big stores had their doors open and thousands of people walking through. That has to be unfair. I know that the county council has suspended rates for three months but that should be extended to six months for struggling traders. Also, there should be a freeze on parking charges when the pandemic is over."
