Podcast Episode 105: Patrick & Imelda Bourke, Owners Patrick Bourke Menswear & The Pantry | 90 Years In Retail

You can also watch this podcast recording on YouTube

Three takeaways:

• The money is part of the transaction, but it's not the major part of the transaction
• Treat everyone equally whether it's the guy with the big car or whether it the guy that's on his little bicycle up the road
• Let them walk out feeling a foot taller than when they came in

Transcript:

I saw this excellent video about Patrick Bourke at the Retail Excellence Awards and said I have to meet these two...

Bob: I am here in Dublin, Ireland, and I've had the most wonderful time with these two folks. And, well, tell me Patrick, what happened last night? 

Patrick: I got a totally flabbergasting surprise at the Retail Excellence dinner and that our family business is 90 years in business this year.

Bob: Okay, 90 years.

Patrick: Ninety years, I'm the third generation in the business and I'm behind the counter for the last 55 years at this stage, and I was awarded with a beautiful plaque and it really, really knocked me for six. I wasn't expecting it in any shape, make or form. I got beautiful compliments and accolades and that which knocked me for six for a while. And after, when I got my legs back again, I was totally delighted.

Bob: Well, you should be, and who is this lovely woman next to you?

Patrick: This lady here is my wife Imelda.

Imelda: Yeah, okay.

Bob: Tell us about what you do and how...

Imelda: Okay, so, I'm with...we're married over 30 years so, I support Patrick all the way. I'm actually a home economics teacher myself, so I'm very into food as well, Bob. I love Irish food and local food, and I run a restaurant on the Wild Atlantic Way which I'm sure all your listeners would be familiar with in Ireland.

Bob: I hope so.

Patrick: If not, they are now.

Imelda: And I'm in Kilkee in County Clare, a nice seaside town and it's where Patrick grew up. So, we started...Patrick actually started my business for me when I left college. He gave me a loan of £500 for my business.

Bob: Really?

Patrick: Five-hundred pounds. I will never forget. 

Imelda: Yeah, he's good. 

Bob: And you both love customer service?

Imelda: Service, yes.

Bob: Yes, I mean, they were at my keynote yesterday and we just bonded over like, "Yes, that's exactly what we were talking about." But, in a world where everybody is talking about...it's all about technology and it's all about knowing, you know, your smartphone, all that, you both have a different version of that, right?

Patrick: I'd say we probably still have a lot of old-school ideas and old-school habits, you know, and that which we were brought up with because both our parents were in business before us in different businesses. And we were just brought up that you appreciate your customer. Your customer is not a lone friend or a way you make a living out of, he's your next-door neighbor, he's the guy you meet in the street, he's the fella you meet at a football match, he's the guy that you tag out, you know, for a wedding, for a funeral, for any event.

Bob: He's not someone to take money from?

Patrick: No, no, no, no. But, the money is part of the transaction, fine, but it's not the major part of the transaction. It's the familiarity, the friendships and the acquaintances that are built up over the years.

Bob: And you talked about it as a spider web, that spider web and communities...

Patrick: Cobweb in the community and that, you know, families are intertwined in smaller areas, they're related and businesses are a part of the network of the community and the fabric of the community and, you know, they all cross at different points.

Bob: And that's what keeps it strong, right?

Patrick: Exactly, very much so, yeah. And so, if one part falls down, if the family, you know, families maybe die out or business closes down or whatever, you know, there's a hole in that web and it takes a long time for that hole to be repaired.

Bob: That's right, but it's up to all of you to repair that, right?

Imelda: Everybody comes together, they support each other, yeah. It's important.

Bob: I think that's great. And you said you started out at seven years old at the knees of your great grandfather, is that it?

Patrick: Well, yeah, the knees of my grandmother and...yeah, my granny...

Bob: At the grocery store or something?

Patrick: That's right in the grocer. My granny and my mother...had a grocery store and my granny was at the menswear shop, her husband had just passed away the year I was born actually. And that so, you know, she in her own right was a particularly strong woman as well. During the war, we had rationing here in Ireland and she went around the country buying butter and eggs and exchanging them for tea and sugar from the towns. She was one of the first women that was able to drive.

Bob: She was an entrepreneur.

Patrick: Yeah, she was in her own way.

Imelda: She made cakes then. 

Patrick: Cakes, yeah, wedding cakes, everything like that, yeah.

Imelda: Something in the business selling, like that, the clothes shop, if maybe it wasn't that busy and she'd make the cakes to supplement. That was his granny, yeah.

Patrick: And my mother then had the grocery shop in Kilkee Seaside Resort and that was a very busy resort at that time with families coming from Limerick, the city close enough to us. And that is, you know, for four months of the year she opened at 7:00 in the morning, she closed at 11:00 at night. The staff...

Bob: Wow, you think they have long hours at a mall, that's a long time.

Patrick: Yeah, exactly. So, you know, the girls that worked in the shop with my mother left 8:00, so family members cloud in the other three hours so, you know, even though I was in 7, 8, 9 and 10 and 11, I worked from 8:00 to 11:00 at night.

Bob: Wow. And we talked about that...all three of us share that starting off as a, kind of a janitor, right?

Patrick: Yeah.

Bob: I mean, that's the stuff that we still notice today, this stuff that nobody else would notice unless you did that job.

Patrick: That's true. We have a...you know, the chewing gum stuck to the footpath outside the door, you know...

Bob: But, you notice that so, see that's the thing, customers notice that.

Patrick: Yeah, they do and I would notice it and, you know, and we have to go...we are the people that end up cleaning that because everybody else will pass it.

Imelda: Pass it by.

Bob: Absolutely, and then pretty soon you look around, you're like, "My store looks terrible. Well, that's my fault." Right?

Patrick: Yeah, that's right.

Bob: What's the biggest, best advice you think you ever received?

Patrick: God, I suppose, you know, my mother always had the thing, "Be honest in business. Never ever do your customer wrong."

Imelda: No, and she always preached as well...she was a fantastic woman, his mom. She was a great businesswoman, she was always smiling and joking, funny, but she said, "Treat everyone equally whether it's the guy with the big car or whether it the guy that's on his little bicycle up the road. You treat everyone equal, and she was as good...whatever...every person that came in her door, she treated them with respect.

Bob: I think that's the secret, but you have to train that because right now. We've got every kid who's got something nasty to say at a reality show about somebody else, right, and it's funny to say something, but it's not funny to hear someone talk bad about one of your customers, is it?

Patrick: No, no, no, that's a horrible...

Patrick: It's one that we, you know, we wouldn't allow our staff to do. We wouldn't do it ourselves so, wouldn't allow anybody else to do it. Yeah, everybody is treated equally, everybody is treated the same with the utmost of respect in every way, but as well they're treated in a very friendly manner. And that's the main thing, the friendly manner.

Bob: So, you start off being friends and then just go from there. You're not waiting for them to like you first, you gotta like them first, is that it?

Patrick: That's it, yeah, but we do, yeah. And I suppose we're in such a small and closed in community as well and we're in business for so long in the community. We have a certain reputation, possibly, you know, and our reputation would be good so, you have to uphold that reputation.

Bob: I think you have better than a good reputation, I think you have an amazing reputation, my friend. You know, we talked last night, towards the end about being story collectors. I think that's just a great idea, that...and we were talking about like, your...I'll take people for graduations and for weddings, but you're also kind of a counselor, right? You have some stories along that line.

Patrick: You know, that's the thing, when you get so close to your customer like we do over the years, you know a bit about their background history, you know, the marriages or deaths or, you know, problems of any sort and they come to you automatically because they know that box will sort me out. And we often get a guy in on a Saturday morning, he was going to a wedding that day, he needs a suit, he needs a shirt, he needs a tie, he needs a haircut, and the suit might need alterations. We have our own in-house tailors. We have a barber in-house. We'll iron the shirt for the guy. We'll turn up the trousers. we'll lace the shoes, and I've actually often even polished customer shoes myself, see? I will let them out.

Bob: But see I think that's...but, because all you're selling is a feeling and you want them to feel a certain way when he walks out there and you're giving it to him, that's a big gift.

Patrick: Yeah, when they feel...let them walk out feeling a foot taller than when they came in.

Bob: And that's the other thing that I thought was really great about Patrick, that they added the barber shop because...and you were telling me about the rugby player...McGregor, right?

Patrick: Connor McGregor

Bob: What did he do for menswear?

Patrick: Yeah, Connor McGregor was the best thing that hit the Irish fashion trade in the last 40 years I'd say, since the Beatles maybe. Connor McGregor, he dresses well. He puts a lot of time and effort into his appearance, from his hair to his beard, right to the very fashionably crafted suit's that he wears. So, he has become an icon to the younger people of Ireland, and obviously a very successful fighter and now become a very successful businessman, but his wardrobe is what really took off in Ireland. They're copying his look.

Bob: And that grooming that beard that's what brought him back to the barbershop?

Patrick: Very much so, yeah, twice. We noticed that not alone the checked suit which was his signature look with the waistcoat and the way tailored his hair, his beard and that, you know, we said, "We've got to have this add-on. We have to add both on this to our business just to complete the look."

Bob: Well, absolutely.

Patrick: It's very successful that we did it.

Bob: Yeah, I love that.

Patrick: Very successful.

Bob: So, we also talked last night. So, when Patrick and I were chatting, out of nowhere, he picks out one of these from his pocket which we have three here, unfortunately, you can't get it and I don't know exactly how even pronounce what this is or the game.

Imelda: Slither.

Bob: Slither ball, but I want you to tell me what is...and you have a video, by the way about behind these as well, but what is your goal for this...this is a sporting goods ball.

Patrick: This is your traditional Irish slither which we'll say would relate in England to a cricket ball or in America to a baseball. It's played with a stick of ash, you know, ash is the timber that's used in it. It's a very, very fast ball...this ball travels at over 100 kilometers an hour when it's hit, so it's quite an iconic sport really, but our County Clare won the all-Ireland which would be the equivalent of winning...

Bob: World Series in America.

Patrick: World series, exactly, exactly. So, I bought 5,000 of these from Pakistan where they're made because they're similarly made to a cricket ball. And then so, what we do now is that we will launch this ball's slither challenge.

Bob: It's just this week, I think.

Patrick: That's right.

Imelda: Yes.

Bob: Yes.

Patrick: So, anybody going on holidays or an expedition or any sort of a trip, we give them to our customers and then take them off with them...take a photograph in front of an iconic building, place, wherever, anywhere in the world and send us back the photograph on social media. The best photograph every month wins a makeover.

Bob: So, then I didn't know there was a prize. I thought it was just a...hey.

Patrick: Yeah, yeah, but as well as that, what part has really surprised me is that from the photographs we're getting, how far around the world and how out of the way places that, not alone Irish people, but Clare people get...we have from Alcatraz, we have from pool parties in LA, but we have also from the other side of the world, down Tasmania and we even had from base camp in Everest.

Bob: Oh, my goodness.

Patrick: Yeah, where a local guy climbed Mt. Everest.

Bob: And again, think about what it is to carry this. I mean you're packing your product just to be able to take a picture of it. I mean that's the epitome of loyalty, and it didn't come from an app, folks. It came from this guy doing the hard work of coming up with...well, with great marketing things too.

Bob: Yeah.

Patrick: Coming up with an idea.

Bob: Right?

Patrick: Yeah.

Bob: So, tell me about your socks too. I love your socks idea.

Patrick: Yeah, anybody who purchases a suit from us, we give them socks, and the socks have our name on them. So, if somebody admires the suit that you're wearing and then they say, "Well, where did you get the suit?" You just pull up the leg of your trousers. "There, that's the guy, Patrick Bourke written on these socks." 

Bob: It's right there, I love that. I love that, and again, it all comes down to having fun with it and the Idea of that one-stop groom that even if the guy didn't think of it for 24 hours, he could still be a winner with you whereas in a lot of other places, like, "We can't do that, you know, you should've been here a week ago. We can't get..." And you have a lot of testimonials on your page too, people saying you outfitted the whole wedding party.

Patrick: You know, part of what we often say is that the impossible we can do at once, miracles take a little bit longer.

Bob: I love that.

Patrick: All we do is, you know, I will say to anybody, young or old, it doesn't make a difference that I can knock three years off you by showing you how to wear your clothes properly, so we can have three years...

Bob: So, hold on a second because I think that's really fascinating. So, give me one tip, you know, because I get tired of my clothes. I think that's the problem with me, but...

Patrick: Yeah, well, funny...if physically, you have the...within reason, a decent shape, by wearing the silhouette of your jackets a little bit neater, you know...

Bob: Actually, does that mean a little tighter?

Patrick: Tighter, yes, a little bit tighter...I don't mean painted onto you, but I mean fitted, you know, firmed onto you and that it actually shows the contours of your body and your shoulders much, much better, whereas if you wear your garments lose, they sag on you, but they actually make your body look like it is drooping as well, you know. So, little things like that. A proper length in the trousers and wearing the trousers something like...

Bob: Proper length of the trousers one of my pet peeves. Guys who get trousers too short, it makes you look short. You don't realize it's all about looks. I used to sell cowboy clothes.

Patrick: That's right, yeah.

Bob: So, the way we would talk about it is, you know, cowboy clothes have that yoke up here and so, we say, "So, if it does this to your shoulders, what's it do to your waist?" and they would all just go...you'd be in front of the mirror, "If it does to your shoulders, what's it do to your waist?" we're like, "Exactly." and it was just fun to see their eyes like, "Wow, really, that works?" like, "yeah." It's all about that image.

Patrick: That's true.

Bob: That image and that feeling.

Patrick: When I started in the menswear in the early '70s, the lariat tie with the cowboys, that was actually popular at the time, yeah, and then the cravat.

Bob: Right, right, right, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Patrick: That was another idea that was popular.

Bob: Are you gonna bring that back?

Patrick: I can see it happening in maybe...you have to think that in order to be fashionable, fashion changes with hairstyles. Long hair brought in bell bottoms and low-cut denims and everything like that. Short or meter hair brought in more formed, more fitted clothes so, the hairstyles have to change with the fashion change and at the moment, it's all clean cut.

Bob: And it's all really trim. I'm not that trim anymore, I'm 60.

Patrick: You're not bad [inaudible 00:16:27], no, no, no.

Bob: I'm not bad, but, you know. So, one of my favorite questions that I ask is that both of you have to answer this, all right? So, you have a friend, they've just rung you up and they said, "I wanna have coffee., I wanna tell you something." So, you go to coffee, but it's your favorite place and they say, in your case, "I wanna...If you have to open a restaurant. I wanna open a restaurant, always wanted to open it." What would you tell them? 

Imelda: What would I tell them?

Bob: Actually, there they are, speak to them, right because that's your friend.

Imelda: Well, I owned the restaurant for over 30 years. It's very hard work I would tell them. I start every morning at 5:30 a.m. and I start with all the baking because we make everything on site, every morsel in my restaurant is homemade. So, I would say to them, they need to learn the product first. They need to be trained in the product. I think the person that thinks they can open the door, they have a lovely fancy idea that they are going to have these little tea rooms and they're going to be dressed up like I am today and, you know, walk around and that everybody...

Bob: Be hostess.

Patrick: Be hostess.

Imelda: ...else will do their hard work, they won't. You need to understand the product. You need to understand, "Well, why did that cake sink today when we were making?" So, you know, I would spend maybe a month in my quiet time testing recipes, making sure flavors are correct. You know, we did it there only a month ago with coffee cakes and lemon cakes. Are they lemon enough? We need to get them more lemon. How can I get them more lemon? I'm tasting...

Bob: Well couldn't they just buy all that from a supplier?

Imelda: They're not good though. They're not good. That's the secret of my success.

Bob: And what would happen to the business? What will happen to the business.

Imelda: It will go down.

Bob: There's no way.

Imelda: And they'll close. In they'll last the year. And what's happening here in Ireland now is that everybody is buying the products because labor is very expensive. And in the summertime, in my restaurant, in the peak weeks, we've up to 30 people working, right and it's...

Patrick: Because that's what you need.

Imelda: That's what you need. It's labor-intensive.

Bob: And that one point I wanted to get to also was the way you said...got a little...there you go...was that you started off with...in there at 5:30 every day.

Imelda: That's right. I am. And that's what I'd like to tell the person.

Bob: And like, you were talking about is you gotta put the time in it if you're gonna be in business.

Patrick: Yeah.

Imelda: Yeah, you've got to put the time in. It could be seven days a week...all weeks with me are nearly seven days a week and I get home, I might be the last person out because I'm checking, is everything there for the morning? is everything right there when I walk in the door at 5:30, that I've no hassle, that...

Bob: You know that it's ready to go.

Imelda: Yeah, that it's ready to go.

Bob: That's huge. Patrick, what would you add?

Patrick: What would I say?

Bob: When a young man or young woman says, "I'm gonna open a..."

Imelda: Well, our son is there, I suppose maybe in a couple of years...

Bob: Okay, okay.

Imelda: He might be down the road, but maybe there's hope for him, but anyway. 

Bob: That's right. 

Patrick: Yeah, well, if you're starting from scratch, you have to have a passion and nothing can be left undone, and nothing can be a problem to you, you have to overcome...you will have to overcome lots of problems so, nothing can phase you and nothing should phase you. Finance in Ireland at the moment is probably the biggest thing that [inaudible 00:19:36] and that it's impossible to get finance to start any business in Ireland at the moment. The banks have just, more or less, shut up shop as they've had over the last 10 years. So, typically, there are very, very few businesses starting up and that Imelda has just alluded to it there, and I would definitely confirm it, that knowledge of what you're about start up, courage isn't enough, you need knowledge as well as courage.

Bob: But, "I like clothes." isn't that enough?

Patrick: No.

Bob: I like to buy clothes, isn't that enough?

Patrick: No.

Bob: Isn't that what it is? Because I just like to buy clothes so, I'll be successful, right?

Imelda: No, they won't know though if this guy's suit is fitting him correctly, you know, you won't have the knowledge then. You won't know of knowledge the cloth or the shirt or what's a good quality. Patrick travels all over the world. The same as my ingredients, what's good, what's bad. I buy always good quality ingredients and people tell me, "God, you buy that much butter in Ireland?" We do a lot of cakes with butter and even our scrambled egg for the breakfast and people say, "Do you buy all of that?" and I say, "But, I get it back. I get it back, all..." I've just to be the best on the street. Everybody tries to copy then, once you're there, you... I think you said that yesterday, you've got only got a little short time and then they're on the bandwagon copying, and I've had that over the years, big time, big time.

Bob: Drive you nuts and then you just have to say, "Just stay true."

Imelda: And just have to say true and you bring another product on that people like and zone in maybe and like, we have a very successful carrot cake. Everybody tells me it's the best in Ireland, "My God, it's the best in Ireland." And, you know, people come for it. They just come. We're a destination.

Bob: So, you don't do that. You buy the average stuff, now you've gotta spend all that marketing, right?

Patrick: That's right, Bob. Yeah. 

Bob: To say, "Please come to try me and have average service and have a, sort of, lemon kind of cake, but it's not exceptional."

Patrick: Yeah.

Bob: I mean, you have passionate followers, both of you, of your businesses.

Patrick: We're lucky we have...The other side of that is that is that I would never discourage somebody from following their dream. If they want to start a business, I would definitely encourage them, but I would also advise them that they should get a mentor of some sort, you know, be it a person who has been through the mill or advisors who can guide them, but I would never discourage them from following their [inaudible 00:22:03]...

Bob: Or go work in a store first or something.

Imelda: That's it, that's it.

Patrick: Yeah, very much so, very much that.

Bob: Because I think is fun to say you're the business owner, but the reality is we're all salesmen. We're all salespeople. we don't eat unless somebody buys.

Imelda: That's right.

Bob: And until you understand that, it's easy to fill up a store with pretty stuff, and then it's your money sitting there and you're like, "Now what?" 

Patrick: Yeah.

Imelda: [inaudible 00:22:24] say, "All my money is tied up."

Bob: That's right, "All my money is in inventory."

Patrick: Yeah, yeah, and that happens in a lot of businesses. There was a talk I listened to lately there, and the guy, he was in the coffee business and he called them breadline entrepreneurs. A lot of people in business and who start up business really are on the breadline. Everything is tied up in their business. They're not turning over enough, you know, they're not able to get enough out of it, and they're just struggling from day to day, yes.

Bob: Yeah, you bought yourself a job. it's not really a business.

Patrick: Yes, you bought a job.

Bob: But, it's a hard job, not even...

Patrick: That's a very good phrase, but you bought the job.

Imelda: Bought yourself a job. That's a good idea, yeah.

Bob: So, tell me, what would you...I know you've been generous with your time and if you can hear the clanging, we've just finished breakfast and they've been so generous today with me. 

Imelda: We enjoyed it.

Bob: What would you think, what's your definition of great customer service?

Patrick: Well, everybody thinks they have the best customer service, you know?

Bob: And it's so true.

Patrick: I never think that. I always think we can be better and my thing to my staff is that...my coworkers, I don't call them staff, [inaudible 00:23:28], they call them coworkers and friends and five-star...

Bob: Did you get that distinction, coworkers and friends, not staff, I love that, keep going.

Patrick: You know, five-star service. So, you know, I looked at hotels. I've looked at the quality service that hotels give in the five-star market. Is there anything that I can bring to my business from the likes of their service? So, that's the kind of ambition that I would have for our business. Everybody tells us we're good. I don't realize possibly myself that we're as good as we are, but I feel that we can do better and strive to be better all the time.

Bob: But, that's...at least the same thing you're doing with your recipes.

Imelda: That's right, yes, they're all the...

Bob: Yeah, it's a great carrot cake today.

Imelda: Yeah, it is. All the ingredients have to be good and the person making it has to be careful that everything is weighed properly, you know, so, that's the important...and then it's down to the servers in my restaurant and whether they're smiling today.

Bob: So, how do you train that?

Imelda: I do a training day with my staff to make sure that they are...that they understand every product that we have and they understand our area, that we're on the Loop Head Peninsula Wild Atlantic Way. So, that we have our foreigners as well as our locals in, that, you know, you're able to say to people where you're going today? A lot of people will come to see the Cliffs of Moher which you probably have heard of in the States and we have beautiful sea green cliffs. you saw them on our video last night, beautiful. And we try and make sure that people coming to visit have a good experience in the town, not just in my restaurant, but in the town.

Bob: So, you're really...that's customer service for the area.

Patrick: That's it, yes.

Bob: You're ambassadors for your area.

Imelda: Yes, that's it.

Patrick: Very much so.

Bob: Which I certainly get from both of you.

Patrick: You asked me there about it and then the one thing that has just struck me there now is we hire for attitude and smile and you can train the rest.

Bob: Attitude and smile.

Patrick: Attitude and smile.

Bob: Yeah, because I can tell you to smile, but that's not sincere, it has to come.

Patrick: Yeah, a painted-on smile is not good.

Bob: No.

Patrick: It has to be an actual smile. So, attitude and smile and you can train the rest.

Bob: Yeah, no, I would agree. I was at a...I did a speech, much like yesterday. So, I do a speech and before I go in, there's a buffet breakfast like this, and I do my speech and at lunch and I'm going back to the line and one of the servers says, "How'd your speech go this morning?" I was like, "Really?" I mean, that was pretty exceptional. She goes, "Well, I saw you had a full house so, did it go well?" I said, "It really did." And it took me back because it was just saying, "I care about you that moment in your life." It just says that much.

Imelda: I'm interested in you.

Bob: I'm interested in you.

Imelda: I'm interested in you.

Bob: Because that's just like, "here, go away, go away."

Patrick: Yeah, that says...basically...

Bob: And I think that's the key with you.

Patrick: Yeah, yeah, very much so.

Bob: Because you probably see people from very young and I imagine sadly, all the way, right to death, probably. 

Patrick: Right to the...yeah, that's true, yeah. Well, years ago when we were...10 years ago when we were 80 years in business, we ran a competition to see, could we find four generations of the one family who were shopping with us. I could remember...I actually could figure out three to four families who had three generations, but I was looking for somebody with the fourth generation, you know. We ended up with three different families with four generations working or at least they had been purchasing from us at the time.

Bob: Wow, that's amazing.

Patrick: Ten years ago.

Bob: That's amazing, and people think loyalty is, they got points on a card. Loyalty is four generations coming back to you and you're still around. So, you've been generous with your time. When you feel overwhelmed or you kind of like, you lost your way or you're frazzled, what do you do? What's your secret?

Patrick: What's my secret?

Bob: Because you have our irons in the fire, both of you.

Patrick: Yeah, well I...

Imelda: He likes to cycle as well. 

Patrick: Well, yeah, a bit of physical activity is what I like.

Bob: Okay.

Patrick: Exercise, you know, and if I don't...in my younger days I never participated in sport unless there was sweat involved and now even today I can't watch sport without sweating, and definitely in my own instance...and that I cycle, now I ride in [inaudible 00:27:41] few years ago so, running has gone from me you know, but I cycle now and I like the fresh air for that. It clears my head. Definitely clears my head.

Bob: Okay, that's always good, always good. 

Imelda: Along the cliffs that you saw in the video.

Bob: Yeah, lovely. I will show you that length when we get around to it. And so, the name of my podcast is "Tell Me Something Great About Retail." So, tell me something great about retail. I think you could go and on. 

Patrick: Yeah, I know. Well, I tell you...

Bob: Because you're the...he's like the greatest ambassador for retail in the world. I mean, wouldn't you all wanna be able to walk into his store or into her restaurant and meet these people and I get to meet them today, halfway across the world in Dublin.

Patrick: It's all right, but for me, the greatest thing about retail is actually to be a part of it. To be walking in it, to enjoy what I'm doing, and to be successful at it.

Imelda: Yeah, to be successful. You want to be good at your job.

Patrick: That's the great thing about retail for me.

Bob: Good, I like that.

Imelda: Yeah, and I like to be good at my job as I said to you earlier, you know, I'm in the Wild Atlantic Way, and I want to be a destination. I want people to come to me for good food, for good quality food, good local produce. You know, I'm not into convenience foods or that so, I want it to be a destination and I want to be good at my job.

Bob: If I could build on both, I think what you both wanna do is give people a feeling when they come in contact with your brand and that's fairly the key..."Tell me something great about retail" is a feeling, that's it. And I've had a lovely time with you today. Thank you, Imelda, you been so lovely and thank you, thank you so much.

Patrick: It's been a pleasure for both of us.

Bob: And who knows where this is gonna end up around the world so, thank you very much.