On this week’s episode of Inside Business, host Cliff Taylor is joined in studio by Louisa Earls, manager of Books Upstairs, along with Laura Caffrey, & Clare Grennan, Co-Owners of Irish Design Shop, to get an insight into their experience as independent retailers in Dublin city during a period of the year that accounts for up to a third of their annual sales.
Louisa discusses the pivot Books Upstairs made towards online sales during the early days of Covid, the titles that have flown off the shelves this year, competing with Amazon and what the government could do better to protect small independent businesses operating in the city.
Laura and Clare from Irish Design Shop explain the challenges of starting a business in the teeth of the financial crash in late 2008, stocking products from over 60 Irish designers in its Drury Street shop, soaring tourist trade and why so many online orders are now coming from suburban Dublin.
All three guests also highlight the surge in shoplifting and why it is so difficult to combat.
Drug giant MSD buys Wuxi’s Irish vaccines plant in €500m deal
Irish corporate insolvencies hit six-year high in 2024, PwC report shows
Dublin is 9th most expensive city in Europe to live and 4th for rental costs
Ireland has chance to take a leading AI regulatory role – starting with the appointment of a dedicated minister
Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.
