Erneside Shopping Centre

Erneside shopping centre on the banks of Lough Erne in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh

After recent redevelopments the Ernside Shopping Centre has become an almost unworkable white elephant. Customers wonder around the car park trying to figure out how to get to the shops, and when they do finally find them, disappointment is the prevailing emotion as many of the units are empty. The centre appears to be managed by the village idiot as simple things which any person with even a smidgen of retail knowledge could get right are messed up. For example the centre is located within 500m of three major retail units, Asda, Tescos and Dunne's Stores, all three have ample free car parking and attract a large number of customers from all over Ireland, so what does the management of Erneside decide to do? Well you couldn't make it up, but they appear to be installing pay car parking.
Just on the car park subject, the layout of the one in front of the centre is also a joke, because of poor design and a single entry - exit system it regularly becomes grid locked, if more than 5 or 6 cars attempt to enter at one time it becomes impossible to move.

Inside the centre things don't improve much, the narrowest part of the mall (the old part) has now got seating placed in the centre and if you try to negotiate it with a trolley when there's a few customers about a bumping match is sure to happen. The main tenant in the centre is now the highly successful high street retailer (yes I'm being sarcastic) Marks and Spencer's. After much hype the new M&S opened on October 23rd 2008 and quite frankly it resembles a cheap pound shop with cardboard boxes laying everywhere and it honestly isn't much bigger than a good filling station forecourt shop.

To sum up, please do visit Enniskillen to shop and enjoy the sights of this historic town, but if your wise stick with Asda, Tescos, Dunnes and the many shops in the town centre.

Article by Thomas McCutcheon
Submitted to Erneside.com 8th January 2009

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