Dunnes Stores is an Irish multinational retail chain that primarily sells food, clothes and household wares.

Ben Dunne began his retail career as an employee at Anderson's drapery shop in Drogheda, Ireland, in 1926.

When he was asked to oversee Roches' entire drapery business, he agreed on condition that he receive a pay rise.

[4] Dunne opened his first drapery shop on St Patrick’s Street, Cork on 31 March 1944, promising "better value" by offering goods at pre-war prices.

In that same interview, Dunne reaffirmed his commitment to maintaining family control of his business, saying: "Public companies are like the government.

The success of that venture led the company to begin construction on its second Spanish store the following year, which opened in Marbella.

The company became swept up in political events in 1982 when Ben Dunne Jr. was kidnapped and held captive for several days by the IRA.

[18] Ben Dunne Jr.'s tenure as leader of the family business came to an end in 1992, when he was arrested for cocaine possession in a Florida hotel.

At the same time, a new breed of deep-discount supermarket, led by the German Aldi and Lidl chains, had arrived in Ireland, placing Dunnes' own discount formula under pressure.

[24] The company was said to have held buyout talks in 2000 with U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart, which had expressed an interest in entering Ireland.

That same desire for privacy had reportedly led the company to quash a story slated to appear about Dunnes Stores in the Irish Independent, which allegedly chose not to run the story in order to safeguard the yearly €1.6 million in advertising revenues provided by Dunnes Stores.

Also in 2007, architect Arthur Gibney & Partners designed a large commercial development on South Great George's Street, Dublin as Headquarters for Dunnes Stores,[25] which entailed the removal of some buildings and facade retention of several others, including the former Dunlop Factory on Stephen Street, and the Connolly Shoes building.

[29] The refurbished supermarkets now contain a number of concessions including James Whelan Butchers, Sheridan's Cheesemongers and Baxter & Greene Markets Delis.

[30] In March 2020, Dunnes Stores introduced priority shopping for the elderly and vulnerable between 11:00-13:00, in response to the high volume of customer traffic in the mornings, a result from the COVID-19 pandemic where panic buying became an issue across Ireland.

[31] In 1984, Mary Manning, a shop worker in the Henry Street, Dublin branch, made international headlines when she led a picket for almost three years against the sale by Dunnes of oranges sourced from South Africa, then governing under a system of apartheid, in which Ewan MacColl wrote a song about the issue.

The workers eventually met African National Congress leader and political prisoner Nelson Mandela on the occasion of his conferral of the Freedom of the City of Dublin in 1990.

[32] A plaque presented by President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki, commemorating the action, was unveiled in Dublin in June 2008, and a street has been named after Mary in Johannesburg.

[32] In September 2011, the Irish Independent found that Dunnes Stores was selling bra-and-knicker sets for three to six-year-old girls.

[34] On 2 April 2015, members of the Mandate Trade Union had a one-day dispute at 109 branches of Dunnes Stores.

The dispute concerned low-hour contracts (typically 15 hours per week), income and employment security, and the continued failure of Dunnes Stores to recognise or engage with the Mandate Trade Union, contrary to the recommendations of the Labour Court.