The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Federation of Retailers (BFR) president says the sector is not to blame for the recent surge in COVID-19 cases, while warning that curb-side sales are "not a viable" option for many firms.

Tara Morley told Tribune Business her members want to see the Government's data and documentation on contract tracing because “everyone is stating retail not the source of infection".

Responding to concerns that Bahamian merchants may follow Kelly's House & Home's lead, and decide to close down indefinitely for the duration of this latest New Providence lockdown, Ms Morley said: "It varies by size of the business and category of retail. But for a lot of places it’s not really worth opening for curbside.”

She spoke out after Kelly's House & Home announced it was closing "until further notice" from 6pm last Friday rather than offer the curb-side services permitted by the Prime Minister under his latest New Providence lockdown.

The Mall at Marathon-based retailer, one of The Bahamas' oldest and most prominent merchants, confirmed in a posting on its Facebook page that it will offer "no curb-side service" and will again close "until further notice".

Kelly's employed the same strategy when the Government initiated similar COVID-19 restrictions in early August, electing to close rather offer curb-side services. While Kelly's Lumber will provide curb-side service between 7am and 4.30pm on weekdays, the decision by its House & Home affiliate highlights just how difficult and costly it is for many Bahamian retailers to operate under these curbs.

One source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that while curb-side will allow non-food retailers to generate some revenues and cash flow amid the latest COVID-19 lockdown, the practice is a loss-maker that results in many merchants questioning whether it is worth remaining open.

"They don't want to be bothered by curb-side," they added of Kelly's House & Home. "That's a pain in the ass. You're staying open to please. You cannot make any money; you cannot. It slows down your transaction rate and slows down the number of customers coming in."

While some Kelly's customers reacted by asking when the retailer will develop an online presence, others in the private sector have confirmed that curb-side is not a substitute for in-store sales. Brent Burrows, CBS Bahamas (Commonwealth Building Supplies) general manager, said in August that curb-side was equivalent to just 20 percent of normal sales and “not as easy” to pull-off as many think.

And Khrystle Rutherford-Ferguson, the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employer's Confederation's (BCCEC) chairman, warned last week that "retail businesses will be impacted" as there are practical issues regarding limiting their commercial activity to curbside pick-up only without including appointments/

"We also acknowledge that many of our members are not able to offer delivery and curbside pick-up due to the nature of the goods and services they offer," she added.

Meanwhile Lucy Burrows, general manager of Geoffrey Jones, told Tribune Business: “We’re going to stay open and offer curb-side. It’s challenging and it’s not going to be easy because you can’t really look at something from outside in the road, but we will try our best and hopefully our customers can go online and see basically what we have and say if they want something or not.

"The website will definitely help us in this situation here, but you will still have to come to the store to purchase items and, depending on who you are, we would take your credit card information over the phone even though it’s not the thing to do.”

Audrey Flowers, Master Technicians' general manager, said: “We are going to stay open because we have an active online website, and we can take calls as well, so we just are not allowing customers in the store.

"We have had a lot of business online, so it is not that difficult, plus you can pay online as well. What we have been doing, too, is if people didn’t want to pay online on the website they can transfer directly to our bank account, and once we have that information we produce a service ticket.

“If they want to see the product up and personal, because we do have customers that are technology-challenged, then that would be a problem. Normally what we do is we would direct them to the website because everything is online, but you have some customers that want to touch and feel and see it, but that is not going to be possible during this time, at least not in store.”