FREEPORT, Grand Bahama – The biggest shopping season of the year brought mixed results for Grand Bahama merchants with some of them reporting a significant boom in sales, while others said they came up short.
Wes Ford, who owns a shoe and clothing store in the downtown area, said business was “a little slow”.
Despite efforts to encourage shoppers this year through extended sales campaigns, the store has not done as well as it has in the past, Mr. Ford told The Bahama Journal.
“As the years go by people tend to shop a little closer to the holidays,” he said. “What has been happening for us [is] we’ve noticed during the past few years, [customers] have been shopping later and later.”
Mr. Ford said it appears that many people waited until one or two days before Christmas to shop.
“I think the Saturday before the holiday was our biggest day. I find that as the years go by people don’t really celebrate like they used to,” he said.
Other merchants like Loren Wells-Delauze also reported that sales were far from where they would have like to have seen them.
Mrs. Wells-Delauze said her stores, Freeport Jewellers, Curiosity Shop, and Goldfinger Jewellers, would have like to have seen more shoppers.
But Jarrett Thompson, marketing manager at Kelly’s Home Centre, said sales were strong.
Mr. Thompson said shoppers came in early and the parking lot was full on weekends, even though store officials provided more parking space.
The repair and reconstruction that came on the heels of Hurricane Wilma appear to have triggered sales for some merchants this year.
Housing officials have indicated that more than 800 houses were either destroyed or damaged in the October storm.
“We did better than expected,” Mr. Thompson said. “We exceeded our goals for the year and overall the company is up.
“It’s improved for us, and naturally a part of that is attributed to building materials with [so many people] rebuilding. Persons have purchased because unfortunately they had a lot of stuff on the inside ruined, [and needed] a lot of house wares, paint and things needed for finished work.”
Scott Ferguson, who owns a furniture store, also reported that business was brisk this holiday season.
“We did better than expected this year,” he said.
But some merchants said many Grand Bahamians prefer to shop abroad and that continues to hurt local businesses.
“Working against the majority of businesses doing so well, despite the storm, is [the reality that] a lot more people have money to travel,” Mr. Ford said. “When they do, they tend to do most of their shopping in the states,” he said.
With the government putting in place a duty-free exigency order after the storm, it has become easier for Grand Bahamians to travel to shop.
“The security at the Harbour at Port Everglades cautioned us to come early for check-in due to the greatest amount of people traveling for the year,” said Karen Saunders, one traveler.
By: Daphne McIntosh, The Bahama Journal
