The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

RETAILERS say the Government’s extension of its COVID-19 emergency powers Order through to December 28 threatens to create more uncertainty for the key Christmas shopping season.

Craig Pyfrom, DC Technology,’s managing director, told Tribune Business: “I just don’t know what the Prime Minister is going to do at all. I hope he doesn’t just shut down everything and kill the economy.

“I mean, I see numbers dropping lately and it seems like he is trying to keep the curfew on the weekends and other times in the night to avoid the clusters popping up.”

Mr Pyfrom said Christmas was the “biggest time” of the year for himself and many other retailers, and that he “hopefully” gets a chance to sell out with most of his inventory having already arrived.

Many retailers are already nervous about their prospects for the upcoming Christmas season, with the recent curb-side restrictions having impacted sales and cash flows to such an extent that some are uncertain whether they will be able to afford and clear holiday inventories. For some, the festive period accounts for up to 40-50 percent of their annual sales.

Another retailer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “We just don’t know what the Competent Authority [Prime Minister’s Office] is going to do. We hope he doesn’t send us back to curb-side, but we just don’t know. So it is hard for us to gauge how our Christmas season may look.”

Shantel Rolle, general manager of the Brass and Leather Shop at the Mall at Marathon, said: “I know he [Dr Minnis] extended it but I don’t know what he’s going to do with these orders.

“I don’t know what he’s going to do That’s the thing. Even though he extended the emergency orders, he could change the time to even later or earlier and say something else, which is a scary thing. We don’t know what he’s going to do.”

“Honestly, I can’t even say,” Ms Rolle added about her Christmas expectations. “I can’t even see that now, everything so up in the air. You have to remember that he can come on today and then shut us down, and they would probably change the curfew time or do something else.”

“I know it won’t be a Christmas like last year and so, I I honestly can’t say. I don’t know what to tell you. We just have to go with the flow. That’s all I could say.”