The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Several Bahamian retailers yesterday reported “encouraging” Christmas sales, with one

labelling the festive period as a “major improvement” over 2015.

The Bahamas Telecommunications Company’s (BTC) chief executive, Leon Williams, described holiday sales as “encouraging” for the incumbent communications provider.

“Christmas sales were encouraging this year,” he said “We kicked off Christmas with our first ever Black Friday Sale, selling more than 6,000 devices. As a part of our Christmas campaign ‘Live in the Moment’, customers were eligible to win a variety of prizes including 12 cars, lifetime service, jewellery, mobile devices and so much more.

“Just in time for Christmas, BTC launched ‘Flow to Go’, essentially providing the entire country with free ‘Flow TV’ on their mobile devices. Customers are trialling the new service until the end of January. Our stores are fully restocked and we look forward to a promising first quarter.”    

Jason Watson, Automotive Industrial Distributors’ (AID) vice-president of operations, told Tribune Business of Christmas 2016: “It was a major improvement over December 2015.” Apart from automotive and outdoor power equipment, the company also sells housewares.

    Another local retailer told Tribune Business: “I think we made out pretty good. I think we were up maybe 2 per cent over last year. I can’t really put my finger on what that is, but we were up and that’s a good thing for business.”

Many Bahamian retailers generate a significant portion of their annual sales revenue during the busy Christmas shopping period. While some retail segments have reported steady sales, and even a decline over the previous years, others yesterday confirmed that trade was on the rise over the Christmas period.