The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Bahamian home improvements retailer says it has largely “eaten” increased freight and transport costs sparked by higher fuel prices amid warnings elsewhere that parents should brace for higher expenses during this year’s Back to School shopping season.

Brent Burrows II, CBS Bahamas’ vice-president of retail and sales, told Tribune Business that it has largely “absorbed” fuel surcharges imposed by shipping and ground transportation providers and only raised prices on a “handful” of items by no more than 5 percent as it bids to remain cost competitive and ride out the inflationary pressures imposed by the global oil price spike.

Disclosing that the retailer has also avoided imposing higher delivery costs on Bahamian consumers, even as local gas prices spike, he argued that it was “incredibly important” to hold-off any inventory-wide increases “as long as we cam” given that “everyone is struggling” to cope with higher daily living costs.

Tribune Business has seen a chart showing that The Bahamas’ per gallon of gasoline prices are the third-highest in the Caribbean, with only Barbados and Cuba more expensive at $7.54 and $7.38 per gallon, respectively, as at June 15, 2026. Cuba continues to suffer from the US-imposed oil and food blockade, and Caribbean comparisons can be difficult given that taxes and other related factors vary from country to country in influencing what the final pump price is.

However, the data is likely to again fuel concerns over high gasoline prices threatening to make the Bahamian economy and businesses uncompetitive. Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago, the region’s two largest oil and natural gas producers, have the lowest per gallon prices at $4.26 and $4.32, respectively, while The Bahamas’ June 15 figure was close to double the $3.875 per gallon price in the US.

Current gas prices on New Providence range from $7.03 at Shell to $7.34 per gallon at Rubis, and these are likely to be at least one dollar higher in the Family Islands. Crude oil prices, as measured by the Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate indices, were rising again last night following the weekend exchange of strikes between the US and Iran, trading at around $73 and $71 per barrel, respectively.

Mark A Turnquest, founder of the 242 Small Business Association and Resource Centre, and a well-known consultant to the sector, told Tribune Business that the oil and fuel price uncertainty means that Bahamian shoppers should brace for “inevitable” price hikes during the upcoming Back to School shopping season as merchants will have little choice but to pass higher freight and shipping costs on to their customers.

Explaining that the extent of any increases will depend on the shipping bills that retailers receive for early July, when final Back to School product deliveries are typically scheduled to arrive, he predicted that the upcoming shopping period - frequently one of the busiest times for Bahamian retailers - will be “a little more expensive than last year”.

Mr Burrows, meanwhile, said he and CBS Bahamas have yet to see any decline in gasoline and diesel prices despite global oil costs retreating from their $110-plus per barrel peak at the height of the conflict between the US, Israel and Iran. “It doesn’t seem like it’s come down at all,” he added.

“Tropical Shipping has a fuel surcharge that was put on a month, six weeks ago. That is pretty common. Even with land trucking, to get your stuff to the port, we had a few of those going on. We haven’t seen any of them removed as of yet.”

Mr Burrows, though, disclosed that the impact of these cost increases has largely been negligible for CBS Bahamas and its prices to end-consumers locally. “There were some products where we had to do some slight increases, more of our commodity-type products,” he told this newspaper.

“We had some minimal price increases; 5 percent on a handful of them but, for the most part, looking at our inventory as a whole, we haven’t changed them. We’ve absorbed it for the most part. Hopefully, as fuel prices go down, some of those surcharges will go away, and hopefully we will avoid any further price increases and can actually bring them back down.”

The CBS Bahamas chief said that steel doors, cement board and joint compound are among the building and construction-related products whose prices it has been forced to increase, describing the latter as “a big one”.

Mr Burrows added: “Those were three of our most notable price increases over the last few weeks. I don’t think they were any more than 5 percent. It was just a handful of items in the scheme of things; basically nothing.

“It seems that high oil prices have been going down quite quickly and drastically. We’d hope those freight companies just as quickly as they put fuel surcharges on will take them off. Locally, we’ve not even increased our delivery charges to the customer. We’ve been eating that cost as well.

“The reality is everybody’s struggling, everyone is having to put up with higher fuel prices. Just holding up on any kind of store-wide price increase as long as we can is incredibly important. We want to maintain our competitiveness,” he continued.

“Everyone has to deal with increased fuel costs and surcharges, so the longer we can hold off the better. Hopefully the fuel goes back down, and hopefully those fuel charges go down, and all will be good. The good thing is none of our actual suppliers went up on product price; it’s just freight and trucking. It’s the cost of getting them here that has to come back down.”

Mr Turnquest, who counts numerous clothing and electronic retail stores among his clients and members, told Tribune Business that they will likely assess expenses and pricing when their next imported product shipment arrives.

“Talking to my clients, they haven’t received it yet, but I guarantee within a month they will start to evaluate prices because of the gas and shipping cost increases relative to fuel and everything else,” he said.

“It’s going to start most definitely from July, August and September. Those three months. It is inevitable. It cannot be corrected in the short-term. It’s going to be the latter part of July, August and September. The Back to School months are going to be a little more expensive than last year in reference to pricing. Fuel costs affect everything, shipping costs and other stuff too, and drive everything up.”

Mr Turnquest, like Mr Burrows, said his retail members and clients are not seeing any increases from suppliers - the only cost pressures coming in freight, shipping and transportation expenses due to higher global oil and fuel expenses. He added that merchants will seek to keep any Back to School-related price increases “to a minimum”.

“They have to look at this last bill coming for the summer; end of June, early July,” Mr Turnquest said. “That’s when they will get their shipping costs. That’s when they will be able to determine how much the increase will be. It’s not going to be overwhelming where they try to price hike, and try to get a lot of profit. It ain’t going to be price gouging, but they have to cover their costs and move from there.

“Right now, the market is just waiting to see, waiting on the shipping prices coming in for July so they can determine what Back to School is going to be. There’s not too much flexibility to raise prices. We have to keep it steady and base it on market demand and what consumers can afford.”