The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net’

Merchants yesterday gave a mixed assessment of Independence Day sales with one claiming there was a lot of “enthusiasm” while another blamed low consumer turnout on COVID-19’s lingering impact.

Loretta Francis, marketing manager for Suntee Embroidme, told TribuneBusiness that sales had been “great”, adding: “We don’t have a lot of stuff left over; we did decently. We set our expectations and we met our expectations and projections. We met our projections in terms of sales, customer flow and traffic.

“I did notice as I drove around town that a lot of the roadside vendors had our shirts on the roadside. Eeverything this year was dri-fit. We sold dri-fit t-shirts, dri-fit polo shirts. Bahamians love the dri-fit especially as its getting hotter each year. So I would say that polo shirts sold definitely a little more this year.”

Dr Cheryl Strachan, owner/operator of Beyond Flags, though, said “sales could have been better” but “a lot of people are still watching their money”. She added: “ A lot of people brought out their old shirts from two years ago or last year, and they became more conservative. I think COVID-19 really caused that.

“People that used to go all out in decorating their homes, they basically wanted a couple of bows or just one flag and things like that.” Still, Dr Strachan said she “won’t complain” as she prefers to “give thanks to God” for allowing her to remain in business.

She added: “We don’t get a lot of tourists. If we get tourists, it’s basically those who come looking for a flag for their yacht or flags to take home as souvenirs.

“Most of those souveniur-coded items are sold to residents and not tourists. For a tourist to come to us, a taxi driver would have to bring them or someone would have to refer them to me, but we don’t do too much for the tourist market. We basically cater to the residents.”

Dr Strachan is also under the impression that her products stand a good chance of being resold because resellers were buying them in bulk at wholesale prices.