Ever wonder just how trophies get that extra shine or the little plaque with your name on it is so perfectly pristine you can practically see your reflection in it? For this month’s edition we spoke to the owner of John J Cooke & Co., Alan Cooke, about how he has managed to keep the shop going for almost six decades.
Like many of the shops that have been around since the sixties, Cooke’s is a family owned business. The shop was originally owned by John J Cooke and then passed on to his son Alan when he was no longer able to run it.
Alan started working at the shop when he was just thirteen, learning from his father and seeing how he ran the business so he was well prepared to take over when the time came. Since the opening of the shop, it has moved locations three separate times, all around Temple Bar, until they finally settled at 14 Fownes Street Upper.
When questioned on the key to their success, Alan told us that it was all down to the years of hard work and constant effort that was put into developing the shop. With the world we live in constantly fluctuating and the ways in which people get their information changing every day, it was interesting and refreshing to hear that the shop does not put out any type of online advertisements, or any advertisements in general.
Alan does not believe in attempting to fix something that is not broken, and as the shop has survived and thrived for this long on word of mouth alone, we can see why.
A further issue Alan has with online advertising specifically is that you can’t ever fully know a product by looking at an image on your screen. Pictures can be deceiving and the only thing we can really rely on is seeing a product in person. When speaking on how the business advertises, or in this case doesn’t advertise, Alan referred to the shop as “the last man standing”, a one of a kind establishment in Dublin, especially since the imminent closure of Brenfer’s on Capel St.
Of course it hasn’t all been smooth sailing for this iconic establishment. When Covid struck business ground to a halt but the majority of people who were coming in brought trophies that they had bought online during lockdown that they either wanted fixed or replaced, proving Alan’s online shopping/advertising hypothesis.
Although the store never has and seemingly never will be available to shop online, it still manages to bring in money from online orders. It just so happens that those online orders are not from this business. As Alan had stated, pictures lie.
This can be for a multitude of reasons. The size and weight can be different to what the customer expected, same goes for the quality and condition. From looking at an image alone, a customer can be led to believe that a product is made from a durable, long lasting material like silver, but is actually made from a lower quality material like nickel. The average person cannot tell the difference between the two from a picture or otherwise, but bring it to Alan and he can.
When asked about achieving the longevity that the shop has managed so far, Alan told Totally Dublin that the main business mantra is to make sure the customer always “walk out the door happy”, and that there is nothing more important than being there when the customer needs you to be, providing them with the support and attention they need without argument. Familiarity with your customer is the name of the game. It breeds loyalty, and brand loyalty is the surest way to keep a business alive.
Alan spoke of the craziest requests he’s had over time but the one that stuck out to him the most was when he had a group of local college students come in with a pair of plastic boobs and asked him to stick it on a board and engrave ‘slapper of the year’ on a plate underneath that they ended up presenting in front of their entire year where they announced the winner.
When asked about how much Temple Bar has changed since the shop first opened, Alan said that it really hasn’t changed much at all, with homelessness still a prominent issue that doesn’t seem likely to be solved anytime soon.
If you ever find yourself walking around Temple Bar, drop into John J Cooke’s where you can get everything from beautiful, timeless silver jewellery to a medal to congratulate yourself just for making it through another Monday.
Words & photos: Erin Murray & Sasha Robertson
