Shopping centres
Carlow Shopping Centre
(http://www.carlowshopping...). carlow's original major shopping centre opened in april 1994, and offers multi-storey car parking. it's anchor tenant is the indigenous grocery retailer superquinn, while other tenants include the music store trax, tempted, nickel cafe and sam mccauleys. carlow's only cinema was originally located at the centre, which is accessible from upper tullow street and kennedy avenue, but has relocated to a new all digital cinema at fairgreen in 2009 . the nationalist newspaper was temporarily based upstairs at the centre but relocated in 2007 to their new offices near carlow retail park.
Fairgreen Shopping Centre
(http://www.fairgreen.ie). with over 40 stores to choose from, "the fairgreen" commenced trading in october 2003 at a cost of â¬50 million. it's anchor tenants are tesco, next and heatons. it has well-known high street stores such as river island, a|wear, jack & jones, planet auto, argos extra, omniplex cinemas and gamestop, in addition to local businesses like jason farrell sports, bramley's "b2" jewellers and bosco's butchers. all tenants are required to trade between 9am - 6pm monday to wednesday, 9am - 9pm on thursdays and fridays, 9am - 6pm on saturdays and 12pm to 6pm on sundays. however, tesco's opening hours are much longer - from 7am to 12am daily 8am - 10pm on sundays. 500 people are employed at the complex, which is built on the site of carlow's former cattle mart. in order to maintain the link with the history of the area, the centre purchased one of the cows from the dublin cow parade and commissioned a local artist to paint "the fairgreen cow".
Tullow street
Carlow's traditional shopping thoroughfare, "the heart of Carlow" has undergone extensive redevelopment over the past decade. Lower Tullow Street, the main shopping area, has been pedestrianised during business hours since 2002.
Shaw's
Large department store which opened in carlow in 1949. the building was demolished in 2005, making way for a brand new store which opened in august 2006 at a cost of â¬13 million. it's also accessible from bridewell lane, which is adjacent to the post office.
Hadden's Centre
It's anchor tenant is the locally-owned clothing retail outlet hadden's. among the other businesses inside the centre are the country kitchen restaurant and paddy power bookmakers. it is also accessible through its large fee-paying car park on kennedy avenue.
Carlow town offers one of the best shopping experiences in the region. Although retail often tends to be centred on the town's two major shopping centres, the town centre, Tullow Street and Dublin Street in particular, offer a wide variety of shops, from locally-owned outlets to larger nationally-recognised businesses.
ATMs are located throughout the town. There are three in the Fairgreen Shopping Centre, one inside Carlow Shopping Centre as well as several others located throughout the town in shops, banks and other establishments. Note that during high peak shopping days, e.g. during the week before Christmas, few ATMs are in working order, simply because many ATMs run out of cash. A Cirrus ATM is located at the Permanent TSB Bank on Upper Tullow Street.