I was surprised to see how changed the Swan Centre was in the two weeks that I was in the States. The whole place is going through a refurbishment with white tiling throughout along with all of the shops getting smart white consistent store fronts fitted.
What most surprised me was this new shop that is being fitted. It's a Popcorn shop. Ciaran and I always remark how, when we are in USA, that we don't know how whole shops dedicated to one product survive. Examples of this that we have seen is a popcorn shop in Chicago, Peppers in Key West that just sells Hot Sauce and also Towels of Key West that just sells towels. Along with numerous Sock shops that obviously only sell socks. Feel free to tell me about any more in the comments section!
Anyway what is opening new in the Swan Centre is a Popcorn Shop!! Here is a photos of the place being fitted out. It looks nice and is in a great location where SWALK used to be.
Another new shop is this Belarmine Dry Cleaner which is in the spot where Planet Candy used to be. I saw on the window that they were ironing shirts for €1 (which is what I used to pay Northside) so after dropping Bones, I went home and picked up 20 shirts and left them in to be ironed. I chatted with the owner and he told me that they were charging €1.60 across the road for shirt ironing. I agreed with him that his prices were cheap and said he will get a lot of business.
And then as I walked down towards Dunnes, I saw another new place being fitted out. It's a Jewellers in a spot where I think there had been a Jewellers there about a year ago.
Other things to note are that there is a fairly new Butcher next door to Dunnes food and that Dunnes is also getting an overhaul with new flooring being put in. All in all the whole place is looking much improved and I hope all of the new businesses will do well. I particularly hope that the Popcorn shop does well as I reckon they are taking the biggest risk.
