Many West of Ireland music lovers were delighted with the news that a new ‘record store’ was opening in Sligo, following many years of closures for such stores across Ireland, chiefly as a result of the dramatic growth in online music sales.
Golden Discs opened their new store in Johnston Court Shopping Centre at the end of October, encouraged by the vinyl renaissance.
And just yesterday, Golden Discs opened a flagship store in Dublin’s Jervis Shopping Centre.
2019 has been a year of expansion for Golden Discs and the Sligo and Dublin openings come hot on the heels of recent store openings in Drogheda and Tralee, bringing the total number of Golden Discs stores to twenty-one.
Golden Discs, which started in the early 1960s, now employ over 150 people nationwide, and the Jervis store will employ ten staff, doubling that number in the Christmas period.
The new-found interest in vinyl is driving this expansion, and the flagship Jervis store will be a whopping 2,500 square feet full of new release and deep catalogue vinyl.
The store will also stock a broad range of turntables, headphones and speakers as well as an extensive range of CD, DVD, Boxset and Blu-ray releases. In addition, the store will carry the groups largest ‘Loot Vault’ section with an increasing array of T-shirts, posters, games, books and limited-edition collectibles for sale. Golden Discs Jervis will be a one-stop shop for all your entertainment needs, perfect for the busy shopper in the run up to Christmas.
CEO Stephen Fitzgerald (pictured) said: “Having only one Dublin city-centre store in Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre, we have been inundated with requests to return to the Henry Street shopping district. Our team has spent a lot of time looking for the right space and we believe this spacious flagship store will be a superb return to the Jervis Shopping Centre.”
Golden Discs have also expanded their online offering into international markets, starting with the United States. Last year goldendiscs.ie was the most popular Irish website for music and entertainment, and was voted ‘Top 3’ New Websites of the Year in the 2019 Retail Excellence Awards. Building on this success, goldendiscs.com is a brand new online storefront launching traditional and contemporary Irish artists and music into North America, one of the biggest music markets in the world. Catering to the large Irish diaspora and fans of Irish music, Golden Discs offer sounds of home, from classics such as Planxty to recent hits such as Dermot Kennedy. This site has just launched and is already attracting strong international traffic.
Fifty-seven years after they first launched, Golden Discs is one of Ireland’s most well-known and trusted retail brands, and the expansion they have undertaken in 2019 underscores their continuing success.
