The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

DESPITE operating in an extremely competitive food retail sector, Centerville Food Market has remained in business for 40 years by creating a niche for itself, proprietor Horace Major said yesterday.

“Doing what you do well,” was one of the keys to sustaining any business, said Mr Major, who took over the business after his father Jerome Major, 78, passed away last November.

He is aiming to build on his father’s legacy and take the business to another level. “Come November we will be celebrating 40 years in business. We’ve been a staple in the community for that length of time. My father passed on the legacy to me and I have to take it to another level,” said Mr Major.

Speaking of his father, Mr Major, who began working in the store as a packing boy. said: “I learned a lot of good business qualities from him.

“He was a very shrewd business man. His business acumen was impeccable. He was revered in this community and the country at large. He was a very quiet gentleman, never wanting to fuss; it was always about business.

“This was his bread and butter. My father actually began working in a grocery store, and he always said that during that time there was never a job he found too menial to do. He started his own store in Coral Harbour in the 1960s.”

Mr Major said that after that business closed down, his father pursued financing to open a supermarket in Centerville. “He told me it was very hard for him to get a loan from the bank, but his lawyer, Harry B Sands, told him how he could go about seeking financing and the rest is history,” said Mr Major.

“We have had our challenges. No business is immune to it. Our biggest challenge really is the cost of electricity. That never seems to go down.

“In this community we have sustained ourselves because we have catered to a certain niche. We sell a lot of products that other stores don’t carry. We have people from different countries who reside here, who come looking for certain items they know we carry. We try to stick with what we know and not reinvent the wheel. We carry a lot of stuff from Jamaica, Trinidad.”

Mr Major added: “My father’s number one priority was service and to go beyond the call of duty to satisfy the customer. Right now we have about 15 persons employed. Most of them have been with us over five years. I’ve been fortunate to not have a high turnover ratio.

“My vision is really to have more products that are really competitive, and offer better prices where I can. Operating this kind of business is very costly. We try to stay open as long as we could. This was one of the first stores in the Bahamas to open on a Sunday and a holiday.”

Mr Major said that in his father’s memory the store will be having a month-long sale this November.

He explained: “We’re going to be giving away four 40-inch LCD televisions. The catch to that is you have to spend $40 in order to enter to win. We’re probably going to give 10 $40 dollar shopping sprees as well.”