By YOURI KEMP
Tribune Business Reporter
ykemp@tribunemedia.net
Some Bahamian hardware stores yesterday said they might remain closed and still lay-off staff despite being permitted by the government to open from 8am to 8pm on Wednesday and Friday.
Franklyn Russell, the Home Care Centre’s general manager, told Tribune Business the company was still preparing to temporarily lay-off several staff despite the relaxed restrictions on the sector.
He said: “What could you do? If the man [the prime minister] said open up on Wednesday and Friday, what can you do? We are inside now doing inventory. This is bad, man. We are getting ready to lay off. We have about seven staff now and we are about to lay-off three of them now. We dropped from making thousands of dollars a day to making nothing, and these suppliers want their money.
“What could you say? They need to decide what they are going to do. If we are only opening on Wednesday and Friday that means the people don’t have much time to do anything, just sitting down home every day.”
“I have people calling for orders, but I can’t do anything. I’m scared. The police are all around. You don’t want to pay that fine, and you don’t want to get locked up because they will march you down town,” added Mr Russell.
“We’re just hanging low. We aren’t doing anything. If we could assist you and you call in, we would try to assist you, but we can’t do any service at the door like that. We have enough trucks for delivery if we need to.”
David Knowles, general manager of C&C Locksmithing and Hardware, said: “Honestly I don’t know if I will be opening up because I pretty much have a small hardware store. It is a combination between a locksmith store and a hardware store, so I probably won’t be opening this week.”
“My business partner started off with a small hardware store, and I came along with a locksmith company, so it is a locksmith company/hardware store. Number one, I don’t want to get into any trouble because we do mostly locksmithing and locksmiths haven’t gotten any permission to open up their stores,.
“Number two, the hardware side isn’t a big money maker for us either which way, so it doesn’t make sense for us to be open. If we were on the level of JBR or something like that then it would have made sense.”
Floyd Watkins Jr, general manager of Hadji’s food and hardware store, said: “We are a variety store on paper, so we sell groceries and have been open this entire time. This would not affect us in any way, shape or form.”
Comments
John 4 years ago
This is a touch and go situation. First off the economy is operating at less than 70% and most of this activity is for food and medicine. So even if stores were given permission to operate full hours, there would be a tremendous decline in sales. So it may be better to take the reduced schedule and thereby cut the overhead. And as other sectors of the economy opens, food stores and pharmacies will see a decline in their sales as consumers seek to repair their vehicles, their homes or even replace or purchase other necessities household linen and clothing for example. And in the US, for example many small and medium businesses are claiming that their loans and grants are running out before they get the permission to reopen. One of the stipulations is to keep 51% of their staff employed. And pay rent. And this has proven costly for many businesses. Now that car parts stores are allowed to open, government must consider allowing car dealerships to operate their service departments. Essential workers need to have their vehicles operating properly as well as service and delivery vehicles.
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