Independent shoe shop announces closure of Limerick city store

LIMERICK city centre has suffered another retail blow as an independent shoe shop ceased trading.

Serendipity Shoes, based in Roches Street and with a sister branch in Adare village, closed.

Proprietor Elaine Cronin declined to comment, only to state, in a post to the social networking site Instagram, confirming it, saying it is “due to the very challenging retail environment”.

“It is the hardest decision I have ever had to make,” she added, “I want to thank all of our amazing customers that have supported us over the last 10 years.”

Local Fine Gael election candidate Olivia O’Sullivan said she is saddened to hear about this.

View this post on Instagram

It is with the deepest regret that I have to announce the closure of Serendipity Shoes due to the very challenging retail environment. It is the hardest decision I have ever had to make. I want to thank all of our amazing customers that have supported us over the last 10years.

A post shared by Serendipity Shoes Limerick (@serendipityshoes) on Mar 26, 2019 at 4:13am PDT

“The store has had a great presence on Roches Street, and it’s going to be a big loss, absolutely,” she said, urging a retail strategy to be fast-tracked to support small independent traders. “Independent business needs to be looked at alone as they cannot compete with multi-nationals and some of the bigger brands,” she added, “We’re going to have to find some way of making sure they survive in a very tough climate.”