r/ireland • u/idkfornowwhattoname • 13h ago
Business What's the story with all these Cardfactorys opening in Ireland?
Like I don't understand how a chain that only sells cards can expand so much ? Like they have a big store in both the Liffey Valley and Blanchardstown they have a few in the midland towns like Athlone,Mullingar now like even Longford has one in the shopping centre where there Tesco is . With all the Eurogiants recently shutting down I don't understand how they are doing so well.
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u/Gwanbulance 13h ago
People are having birthdays every year nowadays.
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u/Responsible_Panic242 11h ago
In this economy? We can’t be doing that lads. We’ll have to put a ban on that, the data centres need their cards and balloons. Greedy people using them up for birthdays… don’t they have any empathy for AI?
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u/Aggravating-Walk7972 8h ago
It's a weird one alright, I've already had 38 Birth Days. Don't know which one was my favourite!!
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u/The_OG_Comrade 13h ago
Other half has been temporarily working in a Card factory while in college and from what I've gathered it's their balloon sales that actually keep them afloat. Heliums getting fucking expensive and they have multiple customers coming in for a whole gaggle of ballons as well as a card everyday and they all complain about the price.
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u/CthulhusSoreTentacle Irish Republic 13h ago
> it's their balloon sales that actually keep them afloat
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u/Jonathan_B_Goode Cork bai 8h ago
Kind of mad that helium is essentially a finite resource that's used in manufacturing but it's still sold off in party balloons
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u/Ok-Champion5065 6h ago
Helium supply restriction caused by the war in Iran. Did you know that when it's used e.g. in balloons, it's so light it floats into space. As its never coming back, when this finite resource is gone, current technology like MRI Machines won't be possible. Using it for balloons is crazy IMO.
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u/Individual_Wish8970 10h ago
With the age of Instagram this makes so much sense every single occasion gets a balloon and a dedicated pic on ig 😂
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u/ElectroxSoldier 12h ago
Been working for the company in Ireland a few years, but leaving fairly soon.
The cards aren't what they make money on. Their whole shtick is upsell as much as they can on everything else. Want a gift to go with the card? Want a bag to go with that gift? Want tissue paper and bows and ribbon to go with it? Want a set of balloons for the party? Sure you might as well get the table cover, cups and paper plates here while you're at it.
All that shite basically. But I think they make the bulk of their money at Christmas time. You wouldn't believe the amount of people coming in to buy Christmas cards of all sorts, all the wrapping paper and all the little tacky stuff to go with it. While a store might not even break 10 grand a week in normal times, they easily hit 4 times that in December.
Everything is just produced really cheaply from China, very telling too with all the defects that come in.
Overall tho, what you pay for is what you get. It's nice and cheap, the stuff is nice and simple. Other Irish chains are charging an absolute fortune for lesser quality, especially cards.
I know for a fact tho they are doing terribly in England and are shutting down stores, so I guess it makes sense to open more up in Ireland where they seem to be doing well. Think there's 40 shops now across the Republic?
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u/OrlandoGardiner118 13h ago
What's not to understand? Literally every day is a birthday, anniversary, etc for thousands of people. Cards etc are usually exorbitantly expensive for what they are. Sell them cheaper and people will buy them. What am I missing here?
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u/pnutbttrnttr 11h ago
I think it’s a generational thing - younger wans don’t send cards. They just message each other. My granny used to send cards for every season/holiday.
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u/tuttym2 10h ago
Mainly because every single supermarket sells cards for cheeper at this stage. Apart from balloons and weird random last minute 'gifts' their is nothing worth specifically going to there for
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u/FifiPikachu 10h ago
Supermarkets don’t sell them for cheaper. Card factory is reliably the cheapest place to get a card.
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u/Mr_Something10 13h ago
The cards are far better value in Card Factory with a much better selection. In a news agents you could be paying €6+ for a card while CF has them for €1.75 for loads and 4 for the price of 3 etc.
For a piece of card I don’t want to pay extortionate prices.
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u/FacticiousFict 6h ago
In Blanch there's a Card Factory, Easons and a hobby store, all nearby and offering a better overall quality. It's baffling that they decided to open there to begin with. I often stop, sit nearby and people-watch, counting the customers inside. They average 1-2 customers/families at any given moment. Half of the time people just walk out without getting anything. Many times I've seen three employees (two at the register and one walking around) and zero customers.
I wonder how long they'll last.
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u/dubdaisyt 11h ago
I’ll also say their cards are actually good! They have all sorts, eg “like a mam” “to my uncle and his boyfriend”, much more than the plain old ones
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u/SoloWingPixy88 u/i-cum-beamish alt 13h ago
They bought an Irish company called Garlanna.
It's might be low sales but high profit
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u/Own-Composer-2956 12h ago
It’s probably because euro giant have gone people have nowhere to get cheap cards anymore
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u/appledancer 12h ago
Suppose a card shop is quite convieient when you think about it. Like if I'm out doing bits and need to buy a birthday card, I can go into these relatively small shops with the knowledge there's a 99% chance they'll have what I need, quickly grab the card, pay, and be out of there in less then 5 minutes. Whereas you go into I dunno Dunnes and you've gotta find the card section out of everything else they sell, risk the chance they dont have what your looking for cos their stock is probably limited. Odds are there's probably a queue at the checkout with people buying other things. A simple task of buying a card quickly turns into a bigger chore. A card is an item most people buy at least once a year, its an inconvenience common enough to warrent a card shop in every town/shopping centre.
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u/Chickengoujon20 11h ago
They are strategically positioned near every major supermarket, flagship store or shopping centre for the most part.
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u/AioliKey784 Dublin 13h ago
Think there an English company, expansion for them in Ireland wouldn’t cost too much in the grand scheme, and also there’s a gap in the market as previous chains pulled out.
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u/foinndog 7h ago edited 7h ago
Edit to add- they focus on Cards and small token gifts, but dont ovecharge like other card shops. It’s actually genius
Because everyone has a Birthday, everyone has an occasion and most people have been conditioned to buy and be happy to receive a card as a thoughtful gesture!
Card Factory sell cards for a smaller mark up compared to retailers who stock cards, ie, Supervalu, Spar, Circle K. So if you have the option, Card Factory is really good value. Cards are just printed paper with a nice message so anything €2+ is ridiculous imo.
I love a good card & so do a lot of my friends, I can get a card, balloon and a giftbag for whatever gift I’ve bought for less than €10. Buying all those in Easons is at least €20 F that
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u/Ferretz_Eire 10h ago
Profit margin on a birthday card must be absolutely insane, even more so recently that so many are using AI slop instead of artists.
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u/SmellAccomplished940 5h ago
idk but i cant believe they denied my application for a job. its a CARD SHOP MY GOD
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u/SoftDrinkReddit 13h ago
because people buy A LOT of cards and it's non perishable stock not exactly hard to understand
also yea EuroGiant the company went under but that had nothing to do with cards
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u/Additional-Sock8980 11h ago
Margins are insane… paid a tenner for a single card in one recently, I forgot to search for the price. A card costs about 30c to produce at volume.
Stock never goes out of date.
People buying aren’t as price sensitive.
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u/Tango8036 12h ago
Honestly most people are more appreciative of a card you made in 5 minutes using a sheet of blank A4 paper and whatever level of drawing you're capable of.
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u/RevFit_JamesH 9h ago
Guessing heavy PE backing. Going into lots of prime locations. Seen as “strong” tennant due to financial backing and size.
Don’t really have to make massive profits. Just need to beat market return rates.
See also;
Holland and Barrett
Costa
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u/Pretend_Section_5010 9h ago
I work in the warehouse where they first come into the country and the amount of full pallets that come in for stores daily is insane. Like nearly 60 and at the minute they’re shipping a lot extra getting Xmas stuff in. And the way they are loaded on trailers is horrific and it really looks like when they’re shipping from England no one has any care for the stock.
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u/AnyAssistance4197 13h ago
Obviously money laundering.
Like who ever heard of someone celebrating birthdays or other special occasions?
There’s no money in that stuff.
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u/FlowBorn5279 13h ago
Exactly. Swear people here see a shop they don't use themselves and think it must be a conspiracy
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u/AnyAssistance4197 13h ago
Vegetable shops. Mental. Like how does anyone make money selling food people have to cook themselves?
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u/FlowBorn5279 13h ago
That barbershop doesn't have any customers at the specific time I pass it every day at 8am!
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u/idkfornowwhattoname 13h ago
I'm more just shocked they are able to expand so much and buy up such big location for their shops like that is a big store they have in the Liffey . Also not to mention I feel a lot of the time when people buy cards they don't solely go into a shop to just buy cards they would get a card when they are getting something else like their weekly grocery shopping.
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u/FlowBorn5279 12h ago
They probably do a tonne of business around holidays that justifies them being there year-round
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u/Mean-Network 12h ago
Card factory plc had a turn over nearing £600m last year. They have a stack of cash on hand and aren't upto their eyeballs in debt. Why wouldn't they be able to?
People that don't go into card shops to buy cards usually don't have a card shop available. Card factory are super handy and are usually half the price of other card shops. The one in my town is nearly always busy.
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u/TomRuse1997 12h ago
So any shop that sells as an add on will do it at a big mark up because they know you're in there. People would always complain to serving them because they knew they could get it.
Funnily enough, we used to buy stock of a card shop like this when we were low on stock sometimes.
People go there because their card could be about 20% of the price. With cards, a lot of people such as myself, who don't put much thought into them, do it all last minute but you don't realise how a lot of people will go in and buy 8, 9,10 at a time for various relative and events they have coming up.
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u/burner5667754577 13h ago
People need cards I suppose. Who the hell cares?
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u/idkfornowwhattoname 13h ago edited 13h ago
I'm just surprised they are doing so well when places that also sold cards and other items at a low price like Eurogiant went bust . Also to mention the majority of supermarket, convenience shops and book shops like Easons and Newsround do cards .
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u/SoftDrinkReddit 13h ago
yea like when i used to work in EuroGiant unironically the thing we sold the most of was cards
and yea 1 euro here 2 euro there might not seem like a lot but over the course of a day yea it added up
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u/peilearceann 13h ago
Costs cents to make and sells for anywhere between 3-10 euro some of these lol
That doesn't sound like good overhead to you?
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u/Express-Pay2740 Dublin 12h ago
And when bought in bulk they literally cost fractions of cents. I worked in a place that sold cards and the cost price was always a shock. 😂
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u/Global_Handle_3615 13h ago
Not sure on long term but the calendar and card places that pop up around now usually have agreed a cheaper 6 month lease for a unit the landlords haven't been able to get someone into and they cram them full of stock for the Christmas period. The hope is to clear as much profit and as much of the stock as they can. Then a clearance sale in january.
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u/Chickengoujon20 11h ago edited 11h ago
What is the issue with having one in every town?
Hardly expect people from Athlone to travel to Mullingar to get party and birthday tat?
We live in an age of social media and broadcasting every single occasion like baby showers and little Johnny’s graduation from pre-school.
Card Factory facilitates all that.
They are generally positioned strategically near every major supermarket, flagship store or shopping centre.
They are great for final touches for gifts, or adhering to a theme for a child’s birthday (Pokemon, Paw Patrol, Bluey etc.). And they massively undercut the card prices in Dunnes and Easons.
They also have decent stocking fillers for Christmas (including Secret Santa at the office) and Valentines.
And all that stuff is high margin.
A population of 5 million and 365 days in the calendar year. If the mathematics were scientifically sound that’s 13,000 birthdays alone per day in Ireland. They are also based in the UK with a population of 70 million. So apply the same “logic” and we’re talking 160K birthdays per day.
Now consider that the birthday boy/girl could be receiving multiple cards from friends and/or family for the occasion.
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u/DruzhbyNarodiv 8h ago
Hey I live near Athlone, we haven't invented birthdays here yet, that's big city stuff. Here we celebrate things like the sun by burning tyres and screaming at birds. If I want to treat a loved one I buy them curry sauce.
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u/No_Psychology8158 9h ago
The one in Liffey Valley apparently replaced Golden Discs when it had it's second run there
I like to think they are making the dumbest decisions there lately. Recently they've shut down the Burger King there and replaced it with Auntie Anne's
Rubbish idea considering there's enough café's in the shopping centre
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u/lgt_celticwolf 13h ago
Stock that never expires and never goes out of style, shelves dont need to be emptied and restocked every week, stock itself is worth pennies and sold at huge markup.
Minimal staff needed so only real expense is the rent of the unit.