Due to its first major refurbishment programme since it opened at the end of October 2002, the Tralee Road, Castleisland based LIDL Supermarket closed earlier this week and will remain so until the middle of February.
St. Valentine’s Day is hotly tipped as the reopening date for the hugely popular shopping centre.
Well Beyond the Pale
The store attracts customers from well beyond the pale of Castleisland parish and, like the town in general, neighbouring villages supply a huge chunk of its lifeblood.
Work has been in progress on the periphery of the store here for the past couple of months. Now that it’s about to impact of the shopping area and the public, the temporary closure became an inevitable consequence of the targeted finished product.
Expanded Shopping Area
A conference / meeting room, public toilets, extra storage space and an expanded shopping floor area are all to be completed by re-opening day.
Founded in Ludwigshafen in Germany in 1973, the Lidl success story has has rapidly spread its influence throughout Europe.
It now has a presence in over 30 countries with over 10,000 stores and some140 area distribution points at strategic locations.
Stores Nationwide = 154
The company now has the largest network of discount grocery retailers in Europe.
Lidl arrived in the Republic of Ireland in 2000 and has since then opened over 150 stores across the the country.
Castleisland was quickly recognised as a viable centre of commerce and building began here on the Tralee Road site in early 2002.
October Bank Holiday 2002
The store here eventually opened on the bank holiday weekend of October of that year.
The Lidl expansion here is part of a €200m investment in stores throughout the country and also in line with the company’s drive to provide its customers with an unrivaled shopping experience.
Recycle Bins Moved to Aldi
The current lock-down of the Lidl site on Tralee Road means that the recycling glass and food can bins have been moved to the Aldi Car Park at Tonbwee.
My thanks to Barry O’Sullivan of PBC Builders and to Pat Jameson for helping me correct my earlier mistake of assuming that the town was cut of from its access to the bins.
On the topic of the recycling bins: There are people living among us who have been treating the bins in a most abominable way.
Brutally Flawed Attitude
Our record on how bins should be properly treated and used is brutally flawed for years. I could go into my files here and pull out photographs of almost every post Christmas binge of illegal dumping going back a couple of decades – at least.
In an age of enlightenment and when awareness was never more heightened we seem to be at our worst in terms of how we treat a facility meant as an icon of directly opposite thinking.
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