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THE RELIGIOUS BOOK and gifts company Veritas is set to close three of its stores before the end of January, with 13 employees affected.
The company – which is part of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference – made the announcement today as part of a “rationalisation process to invest in online sales”.
The affected stores are located in Sligo, Monaghan and Naas, and they are set to be closed by the end of January of next year. Veritas currently has nine retail stores open in Ireland.
“Veritas has made the difficult decision to close three outlets which have found trading difficult in recent years. I have been discussing the closures with the four full-time and nine part-time employees concerned,” said Aidan Chester, director of Veritas.
Redundancies at any time are difficult for all involved, but especially so in the lead up to Christmas. While the closures are regrettable, Veritas has done its best to keep job losses to a minimum and is working to relocate staff where possible.
A spokesperson for Veritas told TheJournal.ie that the number of jobs to be lost is “yet to be determined”.
“At this time Veritas is looking at all options with the affected staff including possibly redeploying them elsewhere in the business. If this isn’t suitable for staff then redundancy will be offered,” a spokesperson said.
It is not thought that the staff have union representation, and the Veritas spokesperson said that the company was “speaking directly with the affected staff and every effort will be made to assist them during this difficult time”.
Chester said that the decision to close the outlets was based on the company’s “strategic planning in response to the changing shopping behaviours of our customers”.
“Our plan includes continuing investment in our online business which has performed strongly, increasing by 52% this year,” he said.
For the future, Veritas will continue to focus on opportunities to increase our online sales including click and collect and mobile enabled shopping alongside new opportunities in our remaining store network.
TheJounal.ie has contacted Veritas for confirmation on how many jobs will be lost as a result of the closure.
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Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
@Chris OB: edge lord signaling that he is too smart to follow a religion, you’re so cool Chris
@Chris OB: Wide range of material on many topics at. https://www.veritasbooksonline.com/
@Michael Eric Devine: edge lord? Jaysis. Take a breath and go have a pray.
@Susan Adair Farrelly: I understand people who dont believe anything God. What I don’t understand is why do they try and make fun of the people who do beleive what do they get out of it.?
@Scottyal: if your closest friends or relatives told you there was a family of magical elves at the bottom of the garden that grant wishes if you pray to them, would you feel compelled to encourage questioning of that belief?
@Michael Eric Devine: you’re a clown
@Michael Eric Devine: “god” fanatic vomiting buzzwords like “edgelord” and “signalling”. So new and fresh! Your ‘god” is dead and the sooner we’re rid of any trace of this filthy theology and its followers, the better. Xtinianity and its related monotheistic cousins is the cancer that’s corrupting mankind. Pure poison!
@Scottyal: The same we get out of calling out flat earthers, anti vaxxers and assorted anti-reality nutjobs.
@Scottyal: Same thing we get out of laughing at flat earthers or people who believe in Leprechauns. No difference between any of them.
Lots of sympathy here for the people losing their jobs!
@Insider at RTE: plenty of sympathy for people who lose their jobs. None for those peddling lies.
@Susan Adair Farrelly: Religious Lies or great fiction? Depends on how you look at it. Who doesn’t love a good ol’ fiction from time to time. A story about a benevolent all seeing violent deity who demands everyone get on their knees to worship him whole he does out vicious tortures to people at random. Then ya have inconsiderably giant boats, magic with fish, bread and wine, and zombies! Let’s not forget the zombies. I can’t wait for The Bible 2: Jesus’ Revenge
@Susan Adair Farrelly: so you won’t be celebrating Christmas then?
@Maria Hickey-Fagan: I enjoy Halloween but I don’t believe in monsters you utter pain. Try be original.
I’ve no interest in religion, but I’ll be sad to see it go in Sligo. It was always a well kept shopfront in a nice building. Too many shopfronts in small towns are now empty.
@Conall: yep agree, i pass it everyday and customers and staff would have helped me and my GuideDog cross that road. the shop also put my GuideDogs name down for prayers when she needed an operation.
@Conall: Sad isn’t it. Abandon God and he will abandon ye.
@Conall: Sure lob an old vape/head shop in there be grand.
Shouldn’t limit themselves to Judeo-Christian myth, Stephen Fry’s book on Greek myth is selling very well.
@David Jordan: So we should limit ourselves to Fry’s myth? When is he going to write one about Irish fairy’s?
@Patricia McCarthy: missing the point there completely I see
@Patricia McCarthy: Fairy’s?
@Dave Ringer: Fairies
@Patricia McCarthy: Altogether now. Leprechauns. Or fairy fairies.
“Veritas” – Oh, the irony…
Well holy god.
Name 4 racecourses in Ireland and the UK that don’t have the letters R A C E in the name? I’m at a house party in Australia and need the answers. Anyone? Goodwood is the only one I have
@John kane: Huntingdon, Plumpton,
@John kane: Huntingdon, Ludlow, Plumpton, Sligo
@John kane: mondello park
@John kane: Goodwood
@John kane: Cheltenham
Will their stuff be in the clouds now?
Slan libh
Hardly surprising…a disapearing niche market and surprisingly expensive for religious artefacts and publications. Visited the Cork store in the last year and was like stepping back fifty years.
They do great erotic thrillers !! I heard
@therealcc: Not murder mysteries?
@therealcc: not really my kind of thing: And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother’s wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother. And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother’s wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother.
@Gulliver Foyle: hammer time
@Paul Corcoran: Is it really a murder mystery if he comes back from the dead ?
Slow news day .
Fifty shades of grey would have sold very well.
It’s amazing how it has lasted so long considering that people these days are better educated.
@Samuel Lalor Kidd: They are and they aren’t ,if kids are dim at school teachers just ignore them. Many young people can barely write their own name and have little knowledge of anything. Why do you think so few of them vote?
Tis but a sign
All this talk of virgins and donkeys it making me thirsty….
I like books but I think that everything is very expensive in those shops, that could be one reason as I think Amazon might be cheaper at the end of the day to buy the same stuff from?
have your say