Category: Syndicated

As the old saying goes, there are three certainties in life – change, death and taxes. And let’s face it, we don’t get up every morning looking forward to the middle one. Nor are you likely to see advertisements for funerals with special offers, a summer sale or promotions. A funeral is a distress purchase. […]

The number of homes available for rent has steadily dropped, with fewer than 1,000 expected to be available in the capital by the end of the year, property website Daft.ie has warned. The listings site said a lack of new properties coming on stream meant the number of houses and apartments being offered to tenants […]

Just over half of Irish people are now regular savers, and almost all of them say that Brexit has not affected their saving patterns. The latest Bank of Ireland-ESRI Savings and Investment Index, which measures sentiment towards savings and investment, found that 51pc of Irish people are now saving regularly. That’s up from 46pc in […]

In a rising economy, when consumer demand increases, prices go up. In contrast, regrettably, we often see levels of customer service going down as businesses focus on quick profits. How many times have you heard stories of service providers not calling the customer back after an initial enquiry? A close friend is in the market […]

Men and women will soon have the right to know if they are being paid differently based on gender. Employers will have to show the differences in the pay of male and female staff under the Government’s proposed gender pay gap legislation, due to be published in the coming weeks. Any differences in the pay […]

Consumer spending rose last month, marking 14 successive months of growth as an improving economy continued to feed into jobs and disposable incomes. The Visa Irish Consumer Spending Index, which measures expenditure across cash, cheques and electronic payments, rose 3.8pc in April compared to a year earlier. That was an acceleration of the 1.5pc rise […]

This is something I have been saying for a long time. There is a very strong future role for physical retailers if owners ensure that the customer’s visit has a high level of experiential retail within it. In Superquinn we always tried to deliver the unexpected. On Mother’s Day, each of our checkout operators would […]

In a rising economy, when consumer demand increases, prices go up. In contrast, regrettably, we often see levels of customer service going down as businesses focus on quick profits. How many times have you heard stories of service providers not calling the customer back after an initial enquiry? A close friend is in the market […]

A single person is putting in an average of 86 days of work – which would take you from January 1 into the middle of May – just to afford the annual rent on a one-bedroom home. Soaring rental costs year-on-year mean that workers are being forced to put aside every cent they earn to […]

Q I am 27 and have just returned from working abroad in the fashion industry. My parents have a retail shop unit in a poor location, but have given it to me at cheap rent. Sales are abysmal, as the footfall I need isn’t in the area. Do you think I can build up the […]