Guineys
Guineys (or Micheal Guineys) is a discount department store chain in the Republic of Ireland with stores in Dublin, Limerick, Waterford, Castlebar, Tralee and Cork. It is well known for having its three Dublin stores within sight of each other - one on North Earl Street and two on Talbot Street, which run directly into each other off O'Connell Street.
In 1940 the Guineys group purchased Clerys and changed the corporate name to Clerys, although they did not rebrand any of their stores. Clerys main store is within a close distance of the Guineys stores in Dublin, although they also have stores in outlying retail parks.
Guineys stores are still laid out in a very traditional style, with customer service levels more accustomed to the 1940s, including tailors on hand even in the sections of the store selling off the peg clothes. Despite this, the first store trading as Michael Guineys only opened in 1971.
When the main store was destroyed in the Dublin Bombings in May 1974, the company turned down the chance to modernise it, and rebuilt the store exactly as it had been prior to the bombings.
The company was solely Dublin based until 1992, when a branch in Cork was opened, followed by Tralee in 1998 and Waterford in 2004.
The Limerick store was only opened in late 2004, occupying the long vacant anchor tenancy of what was previously the Williamscourt Mall on William Street. The store is laid out in a modern fashion in much the same way as discount or warehouse store such as Heatons.
The most recent Guiney's store was opened in Castlebar, Co. Mayo in December 2008