This article is from page 8 of the 2011-08-23 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
THE Ennis Business Forum is doing its bit to try and transform the county capital into Ireland’s friendliest town. Now comes another initiative being pioneered by three-time former Mayor of Ennis, Cllr Frankie Neylon, to create buzz in the town for one day, in the hope that it can stimulate renewed interest and activity in the retail sector.
It’s being labelled as Ennis’ ‘Super Tuesday’ and it takes place on September 6 next – an idea that Cllr Neylon says can be “whatever businesses in the town want it to be to try and help their business”.
The idea for staging a once-off event where businesses can run special promotions, whether individually or in groups, was floated by Cllr Neylon earlier this month within the Ennis Town Council. Since then, thanks to a local marketing drive through the circulation of handouts and questionares among all the businesses in town, sufficient interest has prompted the designation of the first Tuesday of September as the county capital’s ‘Super Tuesday’.
“September 6 is around the time that Muhammad Ali came to Ennis,” says Cllr Neylon. “We can’t use his name for anything and a few people said to me that we should come up with a festival. It was difficult enough to get people to commit to anything.
“I mentioned Super Tuesday to a few people and they thought it was a good idea, so I ran with it a couple of weeks ago. The idea for the day is that instead of making a profit for the day that they might make a customer. It’s to have a special day. They can do whatever they want. It’s left totally to themselves to do what they want.
“We’re inviting all the traders in the town to take part. We want them to join us to have one good day of shopping in Ennis. We want each trader to have their own Super Tuesday – they can do whatever kind of promotion they want with their business.
“I can say that it has proven to be a success so far, and that’s even a good bit ahead of the event. Up to 30 of the businesses around town have been on to me already and they are taking part. We circulated a handout to all businesses. We collected those last week and now we’re getting ready for the day,” he adds.