The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Mall at Marathon retailers yesterday voiced optimism that business activity will rebound swiftly after the COVID-19 lockdown cost some between 30-40 percent of their annual sales.

Ronald Rolle, Dollar Plus’ general manager, told Tribune Business yesterday that it was “going pretty fine” after the Mall reopened on Tuesday for the first time following the economic shutdown.

“We are following all of the protocols, following all of the guidelines and everything, and making sure everything is clean and nice. Taking care of our customers as always, and we hope for better times,” he said. “To be honest, I expect by between now and Monday things will be looking back to normal. As long as we do things right we expect to be OK.”

But Carol Rollins, Fashion on Broadway’s general manager, said: “Since we have opened everything was kind of quiet, and it has been going very slow, very slow. We hope by next week things will pick up, because you know we are not allowed to open up on Saturday. Those are our busy times, and plus we are closing at 5pm and most of our customers start coming in at 5pm.

“I just hope by next week most of our customers know that we are open and they can still come in and shop between 9am and 5pm. If we can get some time on the weekend that would be good, because that was the busiest times.”

Ms Rollins said that while customers have abided by health protocols, the sales lost to the pandemic will not be recovered. She said: “We had gone from ten to like one right now. This closure represents 30 percent of my total year’s revenue.”

Shantel Rolle, general manager of Brass & Leather, added: “Business is kind of slow right now. Hopefully, gradually, things will pick up, but I honestly can’t say when. Everywhere you go the protocols are the same; you have to wear your masks, use hand sanitiser and stand six feet apart.

“Hopefully things pick up soon as people start to get back to work. I think this closure has cost me between 30 percent and 40 percent of this year’s revenue, right around there.”

Marissa Nicholls, Electronic Express’s general manager, said: “It’s not so bad. Like yesterday we had a lot of people, and more people than you would have expected to see since it was the first day back. People were just excited to be back in the mall.

“Hopefully soon business will pick up, but I can’t really say. You know a lot of people have lost their jobs so it is hard to say. It is not bad so far, but this is only the second day.”

Another Mall at Marathon tenant, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Tribune Business the first sales day was good. He added that the only concern was the landlord still charging rent even though the store was forcibly closed by the emergency orders, but added that he hoped to come to an amicable arrangement.