The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Retailers yesterday hailed the "boost" provided by the Prime Minister permitting them to open for the two Sundays pre-Christmas as they bid to end a largely miserable 2020 with a sales "bump".

Brent Burrows, CBS Bahamas (Commonwealth Building Supplies) chief, told Tribune Business: “Opening on Sundays right before Christmas always gives us a boost. I think it' would be good for the retail sector. Everybody is practicing their protocols, and protocols are in place. I think it'd be good for the retail sector and good for the economy overall.”

He added that despite the softness in demand and consumer spending due to COVID-19's impact on jobs and incomes, CBS Bahamas has been faring “OK". However, Mr Burrows said he does not see Christmas sales coming anywhere close to what was achieved in 2019 despite the expected “bump” from the festive season.

Voicing hope for a more prosperous 2021, Mr Burrows said: “I think with the Prime Minister talking about a lot of projects that are in the pipeline and starting to come on board, for the construction industry I think we'll start to see some activity and, hopefully, that would bode well for our business.”

Asserting that domestic and foreign direct investment (FDI) projects are desperately needed to get the “sluggish economy” moving again until the major hotels regain full capacity, Mr Burrows said: “For the construction industry, I think if some of these projects come to fruition very soon, that's going to put quite a number of construction people back to work.

"That's going to help other families as well, because they're going to start having extra money to spend.”

Mr Burrows spoke out after the Prime Minister announced on Sunday evening that all retailers on New Providence and Abaco will be able to open for Sunday shopping on December 13 and December 20 between the hours of 6am and 9pm.

Tammy Cargill, owner/operator of Commonwealth Fabrics, said: “For us, we really don't open during normal times on the Sunday, but I'm sure for the other businesses it'll be a good boost. It will allow them to make up for some of the down days during the lockdown.”

Angelo Munnings, general manager of Cellular World, added: “The problem is for us is that normally our Sunday shopping picks up like the week of Christmas Eve or the last Sunday before Christmas. Other than that we tried Sunday shopping before and, for electronics, it doesn’t work out very well for us.

"But if there is any big event, and it's a Sunday before the big event, we would be busy. But as of Sunday past if we tried to open up it would have been extremely slow. If it was close to Christmas Eve, as people like their last minute shopping, we would have been very busy.”

Mr Munnings said he is “hoping” for a Christmas sales boost, but based on Black Friday he is not expecting anything spectacular given that sales did not match previous years.

Margo Farrington, Lorene's chief marketing officer, said: “We typically don’t open up on Sundays during Christmas in any event. We only plan on opening up on that Sunday, December 20. We hope to be busy.”