One of the stalwarts of Galway retailing is pleading for more positivity across the sector this coming year.

Mary Bennett, owner of Treasure Chest department store on Shop Street, was awarded the Freedom of Galway City for her work in promoting Galway nationally and globally, which she did as the first woman to lead the international tourism organisation Skal.

Always a bustling presence in the shop, which one of the biggest-selling artists of all time, Ed Sheeran, made famous by first busking outside, her enthusiasm for retail and her adopted city has never waned in the near six decades both have absorbed her.

“It’s a better Christmas this year – the air of Covid is over, even though people tell us it’s not, but all the heartache we suffered as a result of it feels like it’s behind us and I’m glad we’re still around,” she exclaims with a hearty laugh.

“There is a good attitude around the last two weeks. I wish to God people would start being a bit more positive. I’m a bit tired of everybody being negative. You switch on Prime Time and all anybody is talking about is how dear things are.

“But one thing with Covid it’s made us better at presenting our wares, we’ve had to get better at finding better value, buying better products.”

She acknowledges that it has been a difficult year securing stock and negotiating with new markets in the likes of Germany due to the problems of Brexit.

“All of these hiccups will be worked out. I’m looking very positively to next year. We’ve had to sharpen our pens. And that’s no harm. We were getting lackadaisical, taking things for granted.

“Yes, it’s a difficult time with mortgages and overheads but we’ll get on with it. We have to keep what we have alive, be positive, make it more pleasant for people to shop, give people value for money.”

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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