Alex’s

There’s a sign on the side of Alex’s that says ‘The Magazine King’ and there was a time when this was true. In the 90’s it was the only game in town when it came to magazines. Other shops would provide the bare essential but Alex’s had everything from fitness, science, photography, magic, salamader weekly. .. OK you get the picture! Remember this was at a time when you would have to go into town or even make a cumbersome mail order subscription to get the magazine of your interest. They would even order you a particular magazine and hold it in the back. So for those of us who weren’t criminals or super rich but wanted to feel seedy or important respectively we could deal magazines! Imagine walking in on a grey windy day and whispering huskily ‘Hey John you got my copy of Playstation Monthly!’
The other thing was that it used to open really late ie. until about ¾ in the morning when every other newsagent would be shut by 10 or 11 at night. I remember plenty of times when we needed stuff, normally medicine, in the middle of the night and it was off to Alex’s, often from quite far away simply because it was the only place in south Dublin open at that time of night.
Alas times change and when any business loses the the lead in the things that make it unique it begins to slide. While it still has a pretty good magazine selection there are better in DL that have sprung up in the last decade and now that so many pharmacies and garages open late or even 24-​hour Alex’s stopped doing it altogether. It’s not a massive shop anyway and so although it has confectionery there’s little in the way of food or drink (certainly no deli) or much else at all for that matter. Really it pales in comparison to most bigger Spar or Centra shops these days.
15 years ago I’d have given this place 6 stars out of 5 but that was a long time ago. Still it’ll always have a place in fondest memories of growing up around DL! Damn this review has made me nostalgic for the 90’s. ..

The shop is ok, it used to be open much later every day of the week, but I think shuts up shop at about 11 or midnight these days. (The corner shop across the road stays open much later and is run by the old owner of Alexs)
What it DOES have is an impressove selection of magazines and newspapers, you will find pretty much every magazine you could ever want there.
What it DOES NOT have is much in the way of food/​other stuff, dedicating an entire wall to papers etc means that they dont have much room for anything else.

Y’know all those magazines you see advertised in tv like «build your own lawnmower/​castle» which dominate the hungover part of your day for about a week and then disappear forever?
You can buy them all in Alex’s. In fact, you can even buy the ones that aren’t advertised. And probably some of the ones off «Have I got news for you» like «Garden Gnome Weekly» or «Trainspotters Monthly».
Essentially, if it’s been published it’s probably here.