Phoenix: Footfall and leakage in retail spend
We have a very attractive city but seem unable to break the glass ceiling of retail footfall. Photo: Joe Evans
A few weeks ago, a large liner berthed at Dunmore East. She carried something like 2,700 passengers.
Normally about 75% of the passengers go ashore or on excursions, approximately 2,000 in this case, of whom about half go on excursions to places like New Ross, Dungarvan, Wexford, Kilkenny and other smaller towns around the region.
That suggests about 1,000 came into Waterford city to see various museums and historic sites.
Anyone who was around the city centre or on the Mall on that date will have seen hordes of visitors. I spoke to some of them. Informal customer satisfaction interviews!
Nice people on their holidays, on a very fine day, delighted with their experience.
Anyone reading some social media posts about our small city might believe that the place is hell on earth. That is unarguably not the case. The visitor experience is enjoyable and people comment on it.
Of course, there were some comments about shops and shopping and empty premises but in general people understand that this is a fairly universal state of affairs at the present time. People seemed very happy with their time here. Many were very complimentary about the Viking Triangle and various museums, others were just happy to be in some place completely different from their home town.
Maybe we all feel like that on holidays.
What is interesting is that about 1,000 visitors wandering around the city created huge vitality. There is the answer to the complaints and negativity about footfall numbers and retail offering. Of the 100,000 or so people who live around this city, we need about one percent extra of those every day to be in around town to create the vibe that people want.
We have the problem and the solution in our own hands.
Of course it is one thing to be dropped from a cruise liner onto the Mall at the Bishop's Palace in a luxury coach. It is another to find your way to the city centre on a bad, miserable Irish day. The general understanding is that the Dunmore Road/ Ballygunner is the best off part of the city, along with Tramore, which is, despite noises off, a dormitory suburb of the city.
Parking on the Waterside and walking to the city centre can be difficult. Every retail destination in the country, from Dublin to Dundrum, Kildare Village, Cork or wherever, has ample parking immediately in the retail core. Many large shops have their own parking. I believe that the pedestrian centre of Waterford city is very attractive, but the reality for shoppers is more complex.
If people are dropped easily in the centre with immediate access to shops and shopping then pedestrianisation works. That is emphatically not the case at present.
If you are driving from Ballygunner, Dunmore Road or Tramore to City Square on a wet day with a lot of traffic, the problems can be trying. Traffic delays in Lombard Street, The Mall, and the Quays can be daunting. Lombard Street and the Dunmore Road are particularly prone to long, dispiriting hold ups meaning that public transport cannot function properly.
The same issue arises when crossing Rice Bridge.
City Square car park in my experience is rarely full. Its lower floor is often railed off and empty, yet parking costs €2.40 an hour. This is a deterrent to customers and allied to the situation where the car park is not owned by the shopping centre management, you have a real tension.
The car park wants to charge as much as possible to recoup its costs and the shopping centre wants the cheapest possible parking to attract more custom. At present the parking side seems unable to understand that demand is suffering because of low footfall, online retail and the perception that our retail product in Waterford city centre lags behind that available elsewhere.
It might be sensible to reduce car parking costs in City Square, on a trial basis, to keep the place filled and active rather than keeping sections empty.
Signage to City Square car park from The Quay is also minimal. Having the New Street multi-storey closed is difficult to understand and failure to direct traffic to the Glen multi-storey is incomprehensible.
The corollary to low footfall is poor retail offer and poor presentation.
We have excellent employment in Waterford City and a growing population. We have a very attractive city but seem unable to break the glass ceiling of retail footfall and presentation. The former really needs a huge impetus. The latter is problematic.
Arriving across Rice Bridge on a fine sunny day last week, one was confronted with some really poorly presented buildings between Grattan Quay and Gladstone Street. There are obvious exceptions, but power wash and paint is hardly that expensive.
Local authority presentation is indifferent although litter is well managed.
For a benchmark standard, the Granville Hotel is outstanding, as even the pavement outside the hotel is glistening and polished like one sees outside top hotels in Paris, Rome or Berlin.
Good people in both local council and commerce are actively trying to move the needle in our city centre. Others obviously don’t give a shite.
Neglect, vacant sites and dereliction cannot be tolerated.
Progress is not easy in these days of internet shopping and competitive access to other towns and cities. We need a whole city solution of easier access, with a detailed examination of routes into the city centre for public transport and car borne traffic, even if that is not the solution du jour. We need a detailed debate on rates and rent costs.
Car park charges have to be realistic until the local retail product is demonstrably competitive. Comparing costs to Dublin, Cork or Galway is nonsense when one considers that the maximum cost to park in Dundrum in Dublin is €10 per day.
A family from the Dunmore Road can leave home on Saturday at 8.30am and be in Dundrum at 10.30. Park all day, shop all day in a place where the sought after brands are available. Even take the Luas to Grafton Street for more retail therapy if necessary. That is the competition. That is where the leakage in retail spend is flooding out to. That is the challenge for our small city.
