At The bridal salon in McElhinney's department store in Ballybofey, you are advised to take a ticket and wait your turn. And you may need to be patient, as shoppers, and particularly brides-to-be, are flocking to the shop. Many of them come from the North to take advantage of the 15p saving they make in every pound they spend on the southern side of the Border.
Across Donegal, the effect of Northern spending power is being felt. Filling stations close to the Border are always the first to benefit from the sterling differential. Some are reporting up to 70 per cent of their customers as coming from the North.
The housing market is also being affected. A record £116,000 was paid for a site in Rossnowlagh in the south of the county in recent weeks after two Northerners tried to outbid each other at a public auction.
There is nothing new about Northerners coming over the Border to spend their money. For people from the nationalist tradition at least, the trend was established in the worst days of the violence when a shopping trip was more about getting away from the stress of living through the Troubles than an opportunity to save money.
Mary Flanagan, from Omagh, who was taking advantage of a relatively quiet day at McElhinney's bridal salon this week, explained she was merely following a family tradition. Her sister and three sisters-in-law all came to McElhinney's for their wedding dresses down through the years.
She first came to pick out her dress on a busy Saturday at the end of March and had to join a long queue. Taking her ticket at about 2 p.m., she was bride-to-be No 63, and wasn't called into the shop until nearly 5 p.m. Only six wedding parties are allowed into the section at any one time, and those in the queue can visit the coffee shop or other departments while they wait for their number to be called over the intercom.
"We never have a quiet day or a quiet hour," said the salon manager, Marie Doherty, a sea of 700 wedding dresses of satin and lace all around her. Few other shops in the country offer such a selection. Six women work in the bridal section, and two full-time dressmakers are employed to do alterations. Ms Doherty estimates that up to 80 per cent of the brides are from the North.
The owner of the store, John McElhinney, said 20 per cent of his business is from across the Border, and in many cases customers have been coming for years. He started the shop over 25 years ago, and now employs 150 people in 20 different departments. In an era when the sector is becoming increasingly dominated by chain stores, it is an example of what an independent retailer can achieve in a small town.
The shop's location 15 minutes from the Border is an advantage. "People often come a long distance and regard it as a day out. We had a family from the North here last week who spent the whole day in the shop. The daughter was getting married and all the family got their outfits. They spent about £5,000. They say it's easier here because they can get everything under one roof and they have no problems parking or anything like that," Mr McElhinney said.
The store has a policy of always giving the full value for the pound sterling and sometimes even slightly more to entice the shopper to buy. A sign on the front door informs customers they will get £1.15 for their sterling pound.
The strength of sterling at the moment is also having an effect on the housing market in Co Donegal. John McElhinney, a Bundoran estate agent (no relation to the retailer), said the market is "jumping", a result both of Northerners buying holiday homes, and mainly Dublin investors taking advantage of the seaside resort tax incentive scheme.
The scheme, on which investors can save vast sums in taxes, has resulted in huge blocks of holiday apartments being built in Bundoran. In some cases, these have completely obscured the view of the sea from parts of the town.
"I have been in business for 40 years and we sell more properties in a week now than we sold in a whole year 30 years ago," Mr McElhinney said.
He sold a site some weeks ago in the seaside village of Rossnowlagh for a record £116,000. This was for a 1.8-acre site with planning permission for one house. Mr McElhinney said there was "nothing spectacular" about the site as it was a quarter of a mile from the beach and did not have a sea view. Two Northerners bidding against each other at a public auction pushed the price up.
"They are getting a huge discount with sterling, and houses here are not costing any more than in parts of the North, and they have the peaceful environment and beautiful scenery," he said.
Mr McElhinney said Northerners are now buying about 65 per cent of all out-of-town houses coming on the market in the area, for prices in the region of £100,000. There was "a huge demand" for houses near the sea, and not enough houses or sites with planning permission to fill this demand, he said.
Estate agents in Donegal also report a new and growing trend of Dubliners buying holiday homes in the county. The overall effect has undoubtedly been to push up the price of houses and sites for local people. Concern has also been expressed that in some seaside areas around the county, holiday homes now outnumber dwellings owned by people living in the area.
The draft county development plan attempts to tackle this problem, by imposing stricter regulations on building in many scenic areas and charging a £3,000 levy on all new holiday homes. This may yet prove controversial, particularly with land-owners keen to sell sites.
Mr McElhinney said, however, he did not believe locals were being priced out of the housing market. New three-bedroom semidetached houses were available in Ballyshannon for £75,000 and former council houses were selling at £50,000.
"It would be a mistake to say people from the North are causing local people a problem. They are not competing for the same type of houses. Local people want to be near their work, but Northerners are not interested in town houses," Mr McElhinney said.