After months of telling the press how business is booming and what a super job they are doing, the owners of City Market have closed two more stores.
The company suffered nearly a $14 million operating loss during its recently-ended 2011 financial year, the Tribune reported earlier this week.
It was only weeks ago when Mark Finlayson, president of City Market parent Trans-Island Traders (TIT), told a local newspaper that low prices and 24-hour shopping were fueling increased sales at City Market stores in Nassau stores.
Finlayson said at the time that the company is pursuing better inventory management to “meet higher demand than anticipated.”
Apparently, the story has changed. The Tribune now reports that the company would consider breaking even a “huge success” for 2012.
Also in June of this year, Mr Finlayson said he had plans to move full steam ahead with a new $10 million location in the Lyford Cay area. He said City Market would go head-to-head in competition against a proposed $5 million Solomons Fresh Market in the western area.
Instead Finlayson closed the Lyford Cay store and the shelved the grandiose plan for a $10 million dollar super-store.
Aside from the Lyford Cay store, the supermarket chain has also closed the Rosetta Street store and has shuttered the deli department in all stores. They say they are “upgrading” the deli sections in all stores.
Of course, a smart business person would upgrade one or two stores at a time, rather than close the delis in all stores at the same time.
The chain has now been reduced to just six stores – Cable Beach, Harbour Bay, Seagrapes Shopping Centre and South Beach on New Providence, and Lucaya and downtown Freeport in Grand Bahama.
