Christmas shopping starting to pick up

 

Storeowners in Bridgetown are optimistic that the season will be good for sales.

While it may not be a “bumper season”, they say sales so far are on par – for most!

With just 11 days to go before Christmas Day, they say the number of shoppers and sales have started to pick up significantly.

Surveying shoppers on Swan Street, Abeds managing director Eddy Abed said he had noticed that fewer people were shopping and the streets weren’t as busy as last year.

But he said he found the average purchase per customer was up from last year.

“We expected from this weekend that we would have seen a significant increase in the traffic and although there are fewer shoppers, they are spending more,” he said.

Over at Cave Shepherd, corporate communications manager Hugh Durant said that unlike two weeks ago when customers were just looking, they were now starting to spend.

“We are now starting to see the shoppers, but the sales are average. But as it goes into next week we will be hoping to see that usual turnaround in sales,” he added.

Senior manager at Harrison’s on Broad Street, Glyne Brathwaite agreed that this weekend the “real shopping” had begun, and although sales were around the same as last year, “that could change by the end of the weekend.”

“The traffic has definitely increased, as is usual around the 12th and 13th of this month, and we know there will be the usual after-Christmas shoppers who don’t like the rush, so we are still expecting a good Christmas,” he said optimistically.

Also on Broad Street, Colombian Emeralds manager Anthony Forde said their sales were picking up, but he expected they would do so even more “when those big bonuses get paid”, he said with a smile.

Forde said the store would be featured all next week on the Mornin’ Barbados television show where some of the new merchandise would be showcased and hopefully bring more sales.

However, Hiro Uttam, owner/manager of Tropicana Jewellers in Swan Street, said his sales had been extremely slow, compared to last year.

Uttam said even the branch at Sheraton Centre had not been doing so well, and he was hoping all that would change for the better.

“Last year wasn’t the greatest, but this year sales have fallen by at least ten per cent, so it’s not only my fingers I have crossed, it’s my whole body”, he said.

– by Carol-Ann Tudor