With the rising popularity of Amazon, Temu and Shein, small retailers in remote villages on the west coast battle to survive the Christmas buying frenzy.
However, the loyalty of locals to their village traders is key to keeping these businesses afloat over the festive season.
Emily Connell, the owner of Chalk and Easel, a lifestyle and craft shop, in the village of Ballinspittle, Co Cork. After the Dublin native completed a master’s degree in art therapy at the Crawford College of Art and Design in Cork city, an opportunity arose in 2016 for her to open her own shop.
Almost a decade later, she often has specific customers in mind when placing her orders for Christmas.
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“In fact, it has become a bit of a tradition for some of my lovely customers telling me that it’s there fifth or sixth year in a row getting all their Christmas shopping here. I love it, and it really helps me as I am thinking of actual customers when I’m buying things,” Connell says.
With an array of candles and soaps, tide clocks and cuckoo clocks, quirky glasses and kitchenware, among the products on sale, it was important for Connell from the outset “to find things to sell that would make people’s life a bit better without making the planet worse.”
On the other hand, Connell is totally realistic about the challenges facing small businesses and cites Black Friday as a case in point.
“It has a huge negative effect on us and many other small independent retailers. That is why it is so important to support the smaller shops who price fairly all year round and as a result can’t partake in huge discounts,” says Connell.
She says that while she manages to make a living, her annual accounts show that she takes home less in a year from her own business than the amount she must return to the Government for VAT, income tax and rates.
“I wonder if the Minister for Finance would recommend that balance sheet as a viable business model?” she asks.
Despite the winter weather, there is a lot of sunshine in the Co Mayo village of Louisburgh where Portuguese native Ana Silva brings a Mediterranean flavour to her cafe-deli and pop-up Christmas craft shop, Tia.
Even though Louisburgh has increasingly become a tourism destination, she says that, no matter what the season, 70 per cent of her custom is by locals.
“When I say local, I mean anywhere from Leenane to Castlebar. I really would be lost without them” Silva says. “But as well as the longtime locals, there are a lot of younger people and families who moved here during Covid time and stayed. Many of their houses were originally holiday homes which belonged to their parents. Some of them can work from home and commute maybe once or twice a week.”
From late November it is all-go for Silva as she bakes Christmas cakes and trifles, (pickled with some native port, obviously); mince pies and chocolate biscuit Christmas trees. There are pots of Tia relish and jams, pâté and terrines.
The ground floor deli and cafe showcases an array of produce made in the area, for the last two years she has opened a pop-up craft shop upstairs to add to the selection of festive fare for sale.
“There is a group of local ladies who meet once a week and knit hats, and there is Roger Harley’s pottery from Westport and Noo chocolates from Ballina, Namawe soaps, Mescan beers and local honey, ” she says.
She also runs a restaurant in the village, called Tia By the River.
“There is absolutely a good business atmosphere in the village and I am very lucky that my two landlords are very accommodating always,” she says.
Aisling Arnold, the fourth generation running Arnold’s Hotel, in the seaside village of Dunfanaghy, Co Donegal, is adapting to the vagaries of the economic and social climate – from war-time rationing to recessions and the pandemic – is deep in her genealogy.
“Christmas is one of our favourite times of the year, and we work hard to create a warm, traditional atmosphere that draws both locals and visitors back time and again,” says Arnold. “Our pastry chef, Annemarie Woods, produces a hugely popular festive afternoon tea each year, which has become a real highlight in Dunfanaghy. She also creates beautiful handmade Christmas hampers – filled with her own preserves, shortbreads, mince pies and treats – which have become go-to gifts for families in the area.”
Economic realities are always present, no matter the season.
“As the Donegal branch chair of the Irish Hotels Federation, I advocated strongly for the reinstatement of the reduced VAT rate, so its return is certainly welcome,” she says. “However, there is no doubt it is being introduced far too late for many rural hospitality businesses who have been under immense pressure. Rising operational costs, increased energy prices and the continued uplift in the minimum wage have created a very challenging environment for hotels, particularly in coastal communities like ours. An earlier intervention would have provided much-needed relief at a critical time,” she adds.
