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. <\/p>\n
Wes Ford, who owns a shoe and clothing store in the downtown area, said business was “a little slow”. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
Mr. Ford said it appears that many people waited until one or two days before Christmas to shop.<\/p>\n
“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. <\/p>\n
Other merchants like Loren Wells-Delauze also reported that sales were far from where they would have like to have seen them.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Wells-Delauze said her stores, Freeport Jewellers, Curiosity Shop, and Goldfinger Jewellers, would have like to have seen more shoppers.<\/p>\n
But Jarrett Thompson, marketing manager at Kelly’s Home Centre, said sales were strong.<\/p>\n
Mr. Thompson said shoppers came in early and the parking lot was full on weekends, even though store officials provided more parking space.<\/p>\n
The repair and reconstruction that came on the heels of Hurricane Wilma appear to have triggered sales for some merchants this year.<\/p>\n
Housing officials have indicated that more than 800 houses were either destroyed or damaged in the October storm.<\/p>\n
“We did better than expected,” Mr. Thompson said. “We exceeded our goals for the year and overall the company is up.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
Scott Ferguson, who owns a furniture store, also reported that business was brisk this holiday season.<\/p>\n
“We did better than expected this year,” he said. <\/p>\n
But some merchants said many Grand Bahamians prefer to shop abroad and that continues to hurt local businesses.<\/p>\n
“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. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
By: Daphne McIntosh, The Bahama Journal<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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