For 75 years, Bahamians with a sweet tooth have frequented a little yellow family-owned candy store called Mortimer’s Candy.
Located in the Over-the-Hill community, the old-fashioned confectionery, which has brought unconventional sweets packaged Bahamian style, into the homes of thousands of residents and tourists, has seen its share of struggles.
With signs pointing to a U.S.-led war with Iraq and an already weak economy, small businesses like the well-known candy shop are bracing for the fallout, but some small businesses have in the past remained resilient during tough economic times.
Candy is a luxury item, the store’s owner Cornell Mortimer pointed out. So while it is cheap, it could face the axe as people tighten their budgets, he said.
He said business is not where he wants it to be right now, as it is growing increasingly difficult to compete with other candy stores, and convince people to buy Bahamian-made products.
“Well it’s a seasonal business – the candy business,” Mr. Mortimer said. “Valentine’s has just ended, it was a pretty good weekend of sweets. But being seasonal you have your peaks and valleys,” he said.
Mr. Mortimer said although business is not at its worse, his company will have to work on its pricing and marketing strategy in order to make its product better. He admitted that business was “much better” last year.
Mr. Mortimer said the public is just recognizing that the company has been manufacturing more volume of candy in the last two years.
He said although his company has been around since 1928, it still has not been able to compete with other candy stores which import their supplies.
As a result, Mortimer Candy, he said, is unable to decrease its prices and compete with persons selling imported candy because it cannot produce the volume of candy it needs.
While candy sales are down, Mortimer’s is looking forward to Easter, hoping that business would pick up.
“We’re finished with Valentine’s, so we’re pulling down the Easter baskets,” he said. “Our baskets have more candies in it than teddy bears and toys, which you buy in the other stores or that are imported.”
At another Over-the-Hill business, while sales were not brisk, the manager said he was pleased that it had exceeded its expectations.
Valentino Gardiner, Manager of the Palm Tree Restaurant, said, “I expected it to be a little bit slow after the Christmas season, so it wasn’t too bad. These last two weeks though have slowed down a little bit.”
Mr. Gardiner said during rough economic periods, the restaurant explores every possible avenue in an effort to avoid firing any of its staff. He said it is not unusual for the eatery to make amendments to its daily operation to facilitate that process.
“Usually, anytime periods are slow, we just try to watch how we order, watch what we spend and try to cut down on losses rather than lay anybody off. So we usually try to go through the slow period for a while without laying anybody off,” Mr. Gardiner said.
Mr Gardiner said the restaurant currently has twelve workers employed full-time.
Audley Kemp, owner of Kemp’s Liquor Store for 52 years, said he is not so worried about the country’s economic conditions affecting his business and he vowed to do everything in his power to ensure that his five staff members hold on to their jobs.
“I can live,” Mr. Kemp said. “I’m happy. I just want to take care of my staff who has been with me for some 40-odd years. I don’t change staff. I’m not here now for the making [of money] anymore. I’m not worried about this war at all.” His son, Michael Kemp said he was also committed to protecting the staff from an economic downturn.
“Because things are so tough and it’s been tough for so many years, you have to take care of people, because they have children,” Mr. Kemp said. “You don’t want the people’s children to suffer. So sometimes you lose in your business, but at least you’re taking care of your brothers and sisters.”
An Over-the-Hill supermarket owner, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, told the Bahama Journal that business has not exactly been operating at its peak lately.
“Things haven’t been too good,” he said. “As a matter of fact, things are really bad right now. Not a lot of people have been coming in lately. We haven’t laid anybody off yet, but we came very close to it last month.
“We don’t have a very large staff. We haven’t been placing many orders lately for food supplies and other stuff.”
With many similar small mop and pop shops sprinkled throughout that community, competition is stiff, straining profits, he added.
“There are a lot of little convenience stores, little petty shops through the corner,” he said. “I don’t know if us losing money has to do with a war coming, I suspect it may have something to do with that. But then again, maybe it’s just better pricing.”
Marlon Johnson, Corporate Secretary of the Small Business Association of the Bahamas, said small business owners have been concerned for some months now, about the economic slowdown, which started even before the tragic events of September 11.
Mr. Johnson said most small businesses have been practicing restraint, by delaying any planned expansions and by curtailing their expenditure.
He said most small business owners are optimistic about their long-term prospects, but they have war jitters.
“But I think once that has passed, I think most of them are optimistic about the potential of going forward,” he said.
“Among our members, we haven’t gotten any reports of anything substantial,” Mr. Johnson said. “But that said, many of them are just on survival mode. They’re trying their best to curtail their expenditure and avoid new hirings and expansions. But no significant substantial layoffs as yet.”
Mr Johnson advised small business owners to use this economic downturn to prepare themselves for the challenges ahead, including the Free Trade Area of the Americas.
He said one of the main focuses of the Small Business Association this year, will be to determine what kind of survey to carryout to provide statistical data on small businesses.
“Small businesses are the largest employer in the Bahamas, more than government and more than any single tourist entity, but we don’t have the statistics to back it up,” Mr. Johnson said. “So our focus is in creating a statistical base to do assessments and be able to report it to the government.”
By Rogan M. Smith, The Bahama Journal
