There been a bit of retail revival in Inishowen with the latest shop to undergo a massive facelift being Clonmany's biggest supermarket Centra.
Extra aisles will be added to the store to give customers more choice.
And owner Jim Joyce has high hopes he will get the green light to put a cash machine inside - which will mean customers won’t be forced to trek to Buncrana or Carndonagh to wit
hdraw cash.
He told the Journal: “Clonmany had a lot of grocery shops years ago and most have since closed. I felt there was a niche in the market and I wanted to address it by offering the customs more choice to their weekly shop.
“The first phase of the extension has been completed, now we just need to finish it off and we hope to have that done by mid-summer.”
Joe, originally from Dungloe moved to the peninsula to manage the then-new Supervalu in Buncrana, back in 2003. He bought the Clonmany-based shop in October 2006.
But he isn’t the only shop keeper in the area giving his store a makeover.
The Ballyliffin shop has moved into the former Ballyliffin ballroom while it is being re-developed and a petrol shop recently opened in Umricam - on the road between Clonmany and Buncrana.
Joe added: “That Small retail stores are certainly becoming more popular, especially if you look at the demise in the pub trade which used to be the place where you met your neighbours, we now find our customers coming into the shop are spending an hour having a chat with their neighbours.”
The full article contains 275 words and appears in Journal Friday newspaper.
