The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Baha Mar’s woes have turned expectations of a 50 per cent sales increase at Quality Supermarkets’ Cable Beach store into an actual 10 per cent decline, its owner lamenting the “psychological blow” to consumers and businesses.

Rupert Roberts told Tribune Business that a year-over-year sales fall of this magnitude was equivalent to “a disaster”, after the expected ramp up in business failed to materialise when hundreds of Chinese construction workers were sent home.

And his Maxwell Supermaket on Abaco had suffered its first August year-over-year sales decline since being built eight to 10 years ago.

The Quality and Super Value supermarket chains’ owner said Baha Mar had exacerbated low confidence levels stemming from a stagnant economy and high unemployment levels.

While August sales for his Nassau stores were likely to finish slightly ahead of 2014 levels, Mr Roberts added that they had been affected by the ‘peak’ and ‘trough’ associated with consumers preparing for Tropical Storm Erika - an event that never happened.

“We’re suffering from a lack of confidence, everybody,” Mr Roberts told Tribune Business. “Baha Mar was a financial blow as well as a psychological blow to all of us, and the economy is not good.”

He and his suppliers had expected Quality Supermarkets’ Cable Beach store to see a business boom in 2015, given its proximity to the $3.5 billion project site.

But Baha Mar’s dispute with its contractor, and subsequent Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing and associated legal disputes, had resulted in the loss of a substantial Chinese construction worker and tourist customer base.

“We have a Cable Beach store that’s in walking distance of Baha Mar, where all the construction workers went and shopped,” Mr Roberts said.

“That’s down 10 per cent for the year over last year, because all those construction workers are gone. In this business, 10 per cent or bordering on 10 per cent, is a disaster. You have to work that back, as you still have to meet expenses and payroll.”

He added: “The big disappointment to us is that we had predicted, and all our local and foreign suppliers had predicted, that Quality 4 at Cable Beach was going to be our best store.

“We remodelled it, changed the produce, and now it’s not there. We expected a one-third to 50 per cent increase, and instead are faced with a 10 per cent fall-off in sales.”

While unable to recall how much was invested in Quality’s Cable Beach remodelling, Mr Roberts told Tribune Business: “It was going to be a good produce store.

“Chinese workers like to buy a lot of fruit, apples being the lead item. We changed out the cases to hold 50 per cent more produce, and it didn’t happen. We hope and pray it still does.”

The impact on Quality Supermarkets’ projected business is another ‘case study’ that illustrates the negative ripple effect that the Baha Mar situation is having on the wider Bahamian economy and society.

The appointment of joint provisional liquidators last week has, for the moment, only added to the uncertainty over when the $3.5 billion project’s construction will be completed and an opening date set.

Mr Roberts said the Quality and Super Value chains had also re-hired several former employees who had left to join Baha Mar, adding: “We were glad to have them back, because they have our training.”

He described this, though, as a “minor benefit” when compared to the impact Baha Mar’s completion and opening would have on Quality Supermarkets’ Cable Beach business.

“I hope the parties get it together and resolve it,” Mr Roberts said of Baha Mar. “We need it. The supermarkets were depending on it, every industry was depending on it.

“The banks were depending on it for people to get jobs and resume their loan repayments. Everyone was depending on it.”

Despite the reduction in May’s official data, Mr Roberts said the high unemployment rate was hitting consumer confidence throughout the Bahamas.

Pointing out that the jobless rate in Abaco was higher than in both New Providence and Grand Bahama, he added: “We have the biggest store in Abaco, Maxwell’s Supermarket.

“For the first time since we built it eight to 10 years ago, sales were down in August. It’s the worst they’ve ever come to. We’re doing so much more than we did years ago, but this is the first time we’ve not had an increase year-over-year.”

As for Super Value in Nassau, Mr Roberts said its August performance was likely to be “just above last year”.

“The week of the storm we were up 25 per cent,” he added, “and next week we were down 7 per cent. “Everyone did their storm shopping, as they were told to, for two days. But Friday, Saturday and Sunday were a disaster because everybody was shopped out.”

Meanwhile, Mr Roberts confirmed that Albury’s tomato paste had returned to supermarket shelves after the company changed its product sizes.

The popular brand has been missing from many stores for six to eight weeks, after it changed can sizes from six ounces and 12 ounces to six, 10 and 15 ounces. The size changes also required Price Control to approve new prices.

“When we have Buy Bahamian, it’s just amazing the millions of dollars of locally-produced product we sell - the tomato paste, the green peas, the bottled water. It goes on forever.

“If we can do more, and keep more millions of dollars in our economy, we will all benefit.”