The last couple of weeks Playblue has had more media exposure then we have had in the previous 2 years.
In case you missed it we managed to get on the RTE News, Newstalk, KCLR, 4FM, The Herald, The Independent, TheJournal.ie and a few business websites all on the back of our aborted attempt to open a new PlayBlue adult store in Drumcondra.
In case you missed it, here is the 10 second synopsis. We attempted to open an adult store in Drumcondra, a minority of vocal residents protested including some bandwagon jumping local politicians. After discussions with locals and the landlord we decided to pull out amicably as it was beginning to affect other businesses (not ours). We continue to look for suitable Dublin locations.
It has taught us a few things they are :-
Modern Irish society might not be as open and enlightened as we sometimes like to imagine.
NIMBY-ism is also very much alive and well.
The media especially during silly season will grab any old old story and run with.
The old maxim that there is no such thing as bad publicity is actually very true.
We still plan to very soon open a Dublin store and it will be the first of many new PlayBlue stores that we plan to open around the country. We believe we have the mix and unique market offering that is very attractive. Offering local locations for advice, order pickups and local retail will strengthen PlayBlue and enable us to offer a much better personal and faster service to our customers.
We are committed to expanding the bricks and mortar retail side of PlayBlue and hope that the Drumcondra experience will have taught us a few extra little bits to enable us to make PlayBlue an even better adult store.