The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMIAN retailers are reporting a mixed Christmas sales outlook as the holiday shopping rush moves towards its climax within the next 48 hours.

Jack Moree, general manager of the Sandy’s department store chain, said things are “not very good. All around, things are not good. VAT is killing people, the weather is killing them. I can’t tell you how much we’re down, and I won’t know that until after the season, but I’m not at all pleased.

“I attribute some of this to Dorian and people are broke. Then, of course, Friday was pay day for government. I don’t know what’s going to happen when they get paid, but that might have helped a little bit over the weekend. I just hope we get no more rain like we did on Thursday. The only thing that came out on Thursday was the frogs.”

Voicing optimism for retail prospects this week, Mr Moree said: “I’m hoping that things pick up by Christmas Eve. I can’t tell you right now, but I’m just hoping. It helps when government (workers) get paid to see what they’re going to do.

“But you know what’s another killer? The government doesn’t help us by increasing the Customs duty exemption from $300 to $500 twice a year, so everybody now shops in Florida. They didn’t make it easier for us; they made it tougher for us because everybody just goes and shops in Florida instead of putting it here. That doesn’t help the local merchants at all.

“I think that $300 is fair, or one $500 shot for the whole year, that’s it. But they gave $1,000. You get that $500 twice. We have to bring it in. We can’t see the goods until we pay the duty, so they get their money up front from us and we have to try and sell it. So it makes it very difficult for us, and then they turn around and Bahamasair goes and gives a month’s low airline fare plus car and all sorts of things. That doesn’t help us at all. And we have to bring the goods in here, and I have got to project to get them in, and when that comes I don’t see them until they are paid. So it doesn’t make it easier for all of us, not just me.”

Mr Moree added that the 12 percent VAT rate “kills the whole ballgame” for Bahamian retailers by dampening consumer spending and disposable incomes, while the prospect of further Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) cost rises via its upcoming $650m debt refinancing means it is “not an easy game for us”.

The Sandy’s chief said he was unaware of how like-for-like Christmas sales compared to 2018, and added: “I don’t know because I haven’t been checking it to see. We don’t check it until afterwards and see when we get the tallies, but I can’t tell you right now, looking at the people in the stores - I can only judge by that - it’s not good.

“But it is what it is. We are still struggling along. We still have the best stuff in town and the cheapest stuff, so what else can I do? I just had a wonderful 50 percent sale before Christmas; I don’t put junk on sale, and we don’t sell junk.

“We were trying to get some stuff out, and that is going to kill our sales a bit as well, because people bought a lot of stuff then for Christmas. My goods are already here for Christmas - I don’t wait. I haven’t been in this business for 51 years for nothing.”

However, Edward Robinson, owner of men’s apparel store, Bonneville Bones, said the Christmas shopping season was “not too bad”.

“It’s been a little bit slower than usual up to this point. I expect the next few days should be quite busy,” he added. “I expect things to pick up. People are just cash-strapped. The cost of living has increased, salaries haven’t gone up, so there is less money to go around and then you have, as usual, a lot people still shopping abroad - whether they travel or shop online - so all of that impacts the local economy. But we expect Christmas Eve to be the busiest day of our year.”

Christmas represents the key sales season for the vast majority of retailers in The Bahamas, as well as globally, generating a significant percentage of annual top-line revenues and profits that helps to carry a company through the rest of the year.

Keva Gottlieb, the Harbour Bay store manager for sporting goods and accessories retailer, The SportsCentre, told Tribune Business that Christmas to-date was going “surprisingly well. We had anticipated there would be a decrease in sales, but that hasn’t been the case. Maybe people need a reprieve from what’s been going on in the year, but the Sports Centre has been doing very well”.

She said “tennis shoes and, surprisingly, equipment, workout equipment” was among the best sellers. “I know a lot of New Year’s resolutions have been going on,” Ms Gottlieb added, “As I said, it happens at the end of the year, but we anticipated this year would not be as good as the previous years considering what has been happening with Dorian and all else.

“I can’t say exactly how much percentage points we are up over last year, I would have to speak to someone in the accounts department. But I know that we are up.”

A major downtown jewellery retailer, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Tribune Business: “Things are going good actually. We were a bit concerned because Christmas falls during the middle of the week, and whenever that happens business is normally a little different. So far, it has been very steady, with good sales and I hope it gets a little better as the week goes on.”

When asked how this year compared to 2018, they said: “I think it was the same, maybe even a little better. We were concerned obviously with everything happening in the country and everything going on. I would say that maybe the price point of what people are spending is lower.

“People are buying more smaller things than that one bigger thing, and keeping things more in perspective in that regard, but other than that it’s very well. It seems that it is a smaller price point, but people are still buying. It is still a smaller dollar amount than they would normally do.”

A second major downtown jewellery retailer, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said of Christmas: “It’s not particularly outstanding.” They attributed this to “a combination of things. We have the hurricane, the VAT and the pending increase on electricity. People’s wages don’t go up, so the gap between the cost of living and what you have to spend is widening.

“With the economy not that strong, and people giving to the hurricane relief, it is a combination of things, and probably with the increases in VAT taxes as well. This is only what I observed, and I have talked to everyone else and all the other jewellery stores on the street, and everyone else is of the same mindset.”