The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Pawn shops yesterday said they were starting to see a business uptick as jobless Bahamians seek to unload gold and electronic goods for much-needed cash.

Philippa Major, general manager of Cashwiz, told Tribune Business: “Business is coming in a little bit faster now because a lot of people still aren’t working and they really need the cash. I would say that business is picking up.

“A lot of people are having to leave stuff. I would say that persons that had things here before the pandemic, before the lockdown and the curfew, now that we have reopened and they are not back to work they don’t have the funds to come back to us and pick their things back up, so they are having to let them go.

“That stuff we have to re-sell. For the most part now we have a lot of people coming in who are trying to straight-up sell their things instead of pawning them because they need the cash, and they know they won’t be able to come back in time. We do encourage them to pawn it because we don’t want to see you get rid of your valuable items.”

Ms Major said she was dealing with customers trying to sell more electronics, televisions sets, cellular phones and laptops and “anything they think they can live without, now they are getting rid of it”.

She added: “I’d say things have been pretty steady. I think this is natural because during the summer we normally do have a lot of people coming in. The kids are normally home at this time anyway, and the parents need more money to keep more food in the house and to keep the bills paid while their kids are home. So around this time of the year we normally do see a pick-up in sales and pawns.”

Anton Adderley, general manager of Gold2Cash, said business volumes were “regular” and he has not seen an uptick in persons trying to pawn or sell gold and other valuable assets.

He added: “Business is still slow. People probably haven’t yet started to rely on their surplus of gold items in order to turn in, because you know people still have other options like the NIB (national insurance board) unemployment benefit, so maybe that is a last resort.”

Mr Adderley only pawns and buys gold, not electronics or any other type of consumer good, and said he hopes business will start to pick up.

“I applied for my business to be open around the time when people would have needed cash and I didn’t get an answer back,” he added. “I got an answer that they were going to review it, but I didn’t get an approval, and during that time there were two businesses that were approved.

“So they had two-and-a-half months’ head start on me. That window of opportunity was taken advantage of by the businesses the government had allowed to be open, so they took advantage of it and I couldn’t. So I’m not seeing the business.

“I have to look forward. Those opportunities have passed, but there will be other opportunities and we just have to look forward to see what happens in the future.”