The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

CBS Bahamas yesterday said Black Friday sales increased by 41 percent compared to pre-pandemic 2019 as Bahamians moved to beat supply chain backlogs through acquiring Christmas gifts early.

Brent Burrows Jr, CBS Bahamas’ manager of e-commerce and online shopping, told Tribune Business that the traditional start to the Christmas shopping season was “fantastic” with sales stronger than those seen in both 2019 and 2021. “For this year we are 12 percent higher than sales for 2021,” he added. “We don’t count 2020 because that was a year we did most of our sales online or by curbside.

“This year was great. We had lots of customers, lots of happy customers and they were very orderly. The biggest challenge was getting the products through the supply chain because it’s still a little bit of a mess, but we managed to make the most of it.”

CBS Bahamas (Commonwealth Building Supplies) sought to overcome supply chain backlogs and associated delays by ordering most of their Black Friday and Christmas inventories months in advance - from February this year.

“We managed to make the most of if, obviously wishing we had more if we could, but we did have enough product to make it through the three-day weekend. Most things we stocked throughout the end of Saturday and even Sunday,” Mr Burrows said.

“We had a strong Black Friday sales period. As said, we did better than 2019 and also better than 2021. I think people were looking for good Christmas deals on good Christmas gift ideas. They were looking for the quantity, and they were looking for the good pricing, and we were able to supply both of those things.

“When you looked at our Black Friday sale, some of our items were cheaper than what you saw Amazon was having on special. Like I said, we started looking for these products in February. So we really nitpicked what we can find and what we can get the best value on; what we can get the best quantities on, and we accumulated over the last nine or 10 months to make sure we have everything in place,” Mr Burrows continued.

“So I think people were just excited to know they could come here, they can get what they’re looking for, and they get the best prices shopping for Christmas.”

Sameer Bhatti, BTC’s chief executive, added: “A lot of exciting things are happening at BTC. On the mobile front, sales were strong on Black Friday and continue to be quite positive during Cyber Monday. We were happy to give back to our customers by providing deep discounts on a range of devices just before the holidays. In many instances, customers were able to receive devices for free.

“On home broadband, we are continuing our fibre build-out, and we’ve just completed upgrades in two major communities which we are excited to announce in the coming days. These customers will benefit from a huge Internet speed bump-up, bundled with digital television, landline and mobile services just in time for Christmas. We thank all of our customers for their support and the opportunity to serve as their provider of choice.”