This article is from page 2 of the 2011-05-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
THE business community in North Clare is bucking the national trend with four new businesses in Ennistymon opening their doors to the public over the last number of weeks.
This follows last Friday’s official opening of Banner Books on Parliament Street in the town, an event which comes hot on the heels of the opening of the Twinkle Toes shoe shop, cafe and arts venue The Blue Frog Cafe and the Upstairs Downstairs charity and second-hand shop.
According to Gerry Harrison, owner of Banner Books, the recession can be the perfect time to open a new business.
“There is a saying that there is no better time to start a new business than in a recession because the only way you can go is up.
“I don’t know if that is going to be true for myself or for the other new businesses in town but it is certainly encouraging to me to see that four new businesses have opened in Ennistymon in recent weeks,” said Gerry.
“I like Ennistymon very much and this is the fifth premises that I have looked at in the town. What I found was that, despite the recession, land- lords were extremely unwilling to drop their rents.
“You would assume that, given the recession and the fact that a lot of units are empty, people would be willing to drop their very high rents. It was difficult to find somewhere that was affordable.”
Banner Books will sell a large selection of second-hand books as well as a large selection of new local books and books about the Burren.
“The shop won’t be anything like a high street bookshop. Myself and Marcia, who has a lot of experience selling second-hand books in San Francisco, will not only greet the customers a little bit more warmly [than major high street booksellers] but will also have a large amount of knowledge about all the books which will be on the shelves,” continued Gerry.
“As well as that, we will have jazz playing on the sound system to help make people who want to come in and browse a little bit more comfortable.
“It is something a little bit different for Ennistymon and for County Clare. It is something a bit off-thewall and a bit non-typical.”
Gerry is a former Labour Party politician in London but moved to Clare to open a bookshop with his wife in 2006.