At the weekend I decided to visit the Avoca shop to see how the other half live. I mean ‘half’ in the sense of people who are half of a couple that have a nice address or as is more likely the case, people who are half of a couple who would like to have a nice address but don’t so they buy lots of stuff in Avoca instead. (they don’t call it Avoca Living for nothing!)
Thankfully when I entered the shop the ’single alarm’ didn’t go off. But I was pretty intimidated by all the women marching around the shop in brown leather knee length boots. It was like an SS troop of yummy mummies.
The apparel on the rails isn’t much better. It is almost impossible to tell the adult from the children’s clothes, even size isn’t much of an indication. You’d need to be at Pilates every day for a year before you could even contemplate trying on a scarf let alone a jumper. The clothes consist of tiny fluffy cardigans and wrap tops which you can team with floaty silk skirts - for those days when your skinny jeans are in the wash.
If the clothes aren’t your thing then there is a plethora of house ware, including essentials like pink polka dot napkins or tiny floral espresso cup sets. The one thing that really annoys me about shops like Avoca, Meadows and Byrne, Pia Bang and Seagreen is the huge amount of complete tat that they sell at hugely inflated prices. I have seen the same stuff in Asia for 1000th of the price. However if people are dumb enough to pay €50 for a table runner that was produced in China for 2c because you get to casually say that you picked it up in Avoca then so be it. Not so much ‘buyer beware’ as buyer be ‘AWARE’.
On the plus side Avoca does good food, which thankfully comes pre-prepared so people like me don’t starve. Yet again you do pay for the pleasure. A bag of crisps, “hand cooked� is €3.50! For that price I’d want George Clooney in the kitchen peeling potatoes and pre-heating the oven to 200 degrees.
I guess I’ll be sticking with Tayto crisps and Dunnes for the foreseeable unemployed future!
Assuming you are very drunk, in a dark room and squinting - a lot. Email me on Irishflirtysomething at hotmail.com
January 14th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
When I was home at Christmas my brother had a race near one of the avoca shops so my mother and I dropped in for breakfast. Like you I despaired of the clothes, in terms of sizes and price tags, and couldn’t get over the mark up on food. True they had some good Italian pasta, bit it was 5 times the price of the same stuff in Italy. I did have a very delicious breakfast in the café though.
January 14th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
to quote my dear ole dad “they can see ‘em coming.” fools.
i completely agree flirty lol. i think i’m doing well picking up the odd bit in the m&s supermarket hehe
January 14th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Sometimes I go into Avoca for the laugh. It’s hilarious to see all the SUV driving yummy mummies paying 50 yoyos or more for flowery wellies. The same yummy mummies would faint if they got a splash of muck on their SUVS or flowery wellies.
My granny used to have the same stuff in her kitchen 30 years ago that Avoca are selling now and I wouldn’t say she paid an inflated price for it. Does anyone remember Arklow pottery - vastly superior to the Asian crap that Avoca are selling now!
I was reared on a farm with all the muck and hardship that went with it and I despise people who want to live the rural fantasy and are stupid enough to pay a fortune for it. The worst are those who move down the country with grand plans to live “the good life” in some crumbling pile, then they whinge when playing at Lord of the Manor isn’t going their way. They never consider that the crumbling pile might cost a lot of money to run, the children’s ponies need more than grass to survive and there are real smells in the country such as silage and cows***t, not the delicate aroma of Country Garden home fragrance.
When it all goes wrong and they have to leave the crumbling pile they air their woes in the property supplement of a Sunday paper because some country squire didn’t come galloping to their rescue on his bay hunter.
If Avoca can continue to make money out of these fools fair play to them, I wish I’d thought of it first!
January 14th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Red - cafe is fab, much as I hate to say it.
towny - god bless m&s
Epona - we never had flowery wellies on my farm!
January 14th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
There were no flowery wellies when I was growing up - they came in green or black and were made by Dunlop. Granny had old tin kitchenware that they sell in Avoca for a king’s ransom, and sturdy cream and blue striped Arklow pottery.
The Avoca concept reminds me of Marie Antoinette and her court dressing up as milkmaids in the grounds of Versailles.
January 14th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
@Epona - did you read that one too…laughed myself sick.
I’ll say it again, even if I had silly money to throw around, I still wouldn’t waste it on the faux country junk in Avoca.
I have a nice little pile of pottery that I’ve collected over the years at sales and in the seconds shop for various pottery makers I admire and it beats the entire pottery section in Avoca hands down for style and usability.
Naturally all of this pottery was bought for it intended purpose..to be used rather than displayed as a symbol of wealth.
January 14th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Epona - brilliant analogy, guess we’re not target market.
January 14th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
So true, this whole Buy a little bit of the country for your mantelpiece and pay a king’s ransom for it is insane. It wouldn’t work the other way round - country folk aren’t daft enough to buy pretty bits of old gasworks and linen mills for 100 euro a pop. As Epona says, rural life can be bloody hard graft.
January 14th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
I fixed a woman’s car one day*. She returned later with chocolates from Avoca for me. Honestly, I would have preferred a Mars bar from Mace or a Dairymilk from Dunnes. They were gross! I kept the bag until Christmas and put a crap mug from the Pound Shop in it for my favourite cousin - she was delighted.
*Her Saab ran out of petrol.
January 14th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Nick - yes but no one would get their manicured nails near it.
Primal - my car breaks down like that a lot
January 15th, 2008 at 1:06 am
I threw a very big wobbly in the Avoca place in belfast…….I wanna go back but not until I’m sure they wont remember me…..there was shouting…
January 15th, 2008 at 10:29 am
I like the (admittedly overpriced) food but I hate wading through all the yummy mummies to get to it. And the clothes fit no one I know…
January 15th, 2008 at 11:12 am
man - what the hell happened?
jen - if it wasn’t for the food I would never darken the door
January 15th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Avoca is total overpriced status symbol tat. There’s no difference between the adults and children’s clothes so the yummy mummies can dress themselves to match their little darlings.
Though someone did give me a gift of an Avoca mohair blanket a few years ago which I love, even though I’m kind of ashamed to admit it. I’d just never have forked out for it myself.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Although I’ve never been there, Avoca reminds me of a store that I visited one time in the States where they were selling sods of turf for 10 dollars a pop
The relationship between ’suckers’ and ‘minute’ is a worldwide phenomenon.
January 15th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Hey hun!!! It’s all White now!! Hope it looks better…the old eyes are straining…
XXX
M
January 15th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Ok, I have an insider contact, the whole waterford crystal, Newbridge silver, and avoca thing is a scam. all of theis crap is made in China for nothing!
January 16th, 2008 at 2:18 am
what happened? they ignored me that’s what happened…..I will not be ignored…..I’m a princess…..a prince I mean a prince
January 16th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Our tutor took us for lunch at the Avoca near Ardmore Studios when we were filming there. Him and 25 students…. he wasn’t paying, we all had the soup.
January 18th, 2008 at 12:19 am
So what though? I mean so what if well off people move to the country and buy polka dot kettles for 6 grand and dont know how to train ponies and eat pricey pasta while wearing clothes 2 sizes smaller than yours. What are they doing wrong? Having lunch isnt exactly rubbing it in peoples faces. If they wanna overpay let them overpay. Or go eat in a greasy spoon if it makes you feel better about yourself. Ive rolled my eyes at the YMs the odd time but jaysus, such begrudgery here!
January 18th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Za - I don’t begrudge them at all. I do on the otherhand thing it is a little foolish.
February 3rd, 2008 at 4:41 pm
being to avoca village store, there is is absolutely full of
americans clambering over each other to get the best bargain from the bargain rail and the assistants bowint to their ever needs, as for the over priced, food, the scone was mallet hard and the coffee gross - talk about rip off Ireland is it any wonder that he americans were at the bargain rail, even atknock down prices the bargains were overpriced - Rip Off Ireland at its best
March 2nd, 2008 at 6:48 pm
My wife purchased a pair of Cath Kidston wellington boots from the Avoca store in Dublin for 69 euro. On the same product was a sterling label for 38 pounds. This equates to circa 49 euro not 69 euro. How can an organisation like Avoca justify a 20 euro difference between english and Irish prices? Just another case of another Irish company ripping off Irish customers.
April 2nd, 2008 at 5:16 pm
i work in an avoca store, and as for being made in china - all the avoca brand stuff is made in either wicklow or Italy … Its a pretty ethical company who treat their staff well and pretty much everyone i work with will bend over backwards to help a customer with almost anything, Im proud to work there !