There are just two more voting days left in Best Shops 14. The competition has featured, jewellers, butchers, sweet shops, chemists, florists, outdoor shops, fashion boutiques, bookshops, cafes, artisan food establishments and even garden centres.
The staff at Hobert and Mays, Monkstown, Dublin, "give invaluable advice and always give you the time of day," Andrea Connaughton writes. "They put a huge amount of effort into their stock so they sell things you really want instead of things 'that will do'. I wish there were more shops were like this." Elizabeth Davidson loves Urban Plant Life on Dublin's Cork Street. This city centre establishment has "wonderful plants, wonderful staff and excellent coffee and is a terrific place to spend an hour or a morning."
With debs season almost upon us, Marian Gale, a Dublin 4 institution, is nominated by Anna Land for "its excellent debs dress selection". More prep work can be done at Lloyd's Hair Salon, Waterford whose"no appointment policy is really helpful," writes Shauna Farrell. The Best Salon category accounts for nine per cent of all votes. For more than a short, back and sides, pals of Nollaig Baker "have raved about Bernard's service at The Merchant Barber for years". The friendly staff at Horizon Beauty, Tuam always make Michele Walsh feel good about herself.
Readers are also supporting their local shops in their thousands. In the Artisan Shop / Greengrocer category, which accounts for nine per cent of the overall vote Aoibhin O'Malley loves Nolan's, Clontarf. She allows herself an extra half an hour to navigate the aisles because she knows that when there she will always "run into neighbours, friends from school and some local characters".
In the Specialist Shops category, a strand that has garnered 25 per cent of the votes, Stephen Beirne loves The Boardroom, a BMX and skate shop in Greystones, Co Wicklow, because "As soon as you come in the staff put the kettle on ready to chat. I've always had a good time in here - online shopping just can't deliver that."
In Best Gift/Design/Interiors, Teresa Talbot cannot pass Time Pieces in Roscommon "without peeking in the window."
This year we've enlisted experts in their fields to sit on our judging panel. Simon Pratt, MD of Avoca, Edmund Shanahan, a retail, fashion and homewares consultant, fashion designers and Frockadvisor columnists Sonya Lennon and Brendan Courtney and Irish Times journalist Alanna Gallagher.
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