The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Local business owners have shared business was slow but expected to pick up after the first day of reopening yesterday following the additional one month COVID-19 shutdown.

Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis, back on August 3, announced a total country wide shut down for all commercial activity except for food stores, gas stations and other essential services. Yesterday, marked the first day back for business operations after that lockdown.

Lucy Burrows, Goeffrey Jones’s general manager, told Tribune Business yesterday: “We have been busy for the morning, people have been coming in for refrigerators and gas stoves as well as washing machines. I’m being positive that things are going to continue for the rest of the week.”

Cordianne Higgs, floor supervisor at Jim Whitehead Florist, said: “Things are going smoothly, we have a couple of orders and thank God for that, but I think business will taper off by the midday.

“We get our calls first thing in the morning, basically. We had a couple of birthday orders and we had a few ‘missing you’ orders and then we had a happy anniversary order. Hopefully when it comes closer to the weekend, we will have a couple of orders for funeral arrangements.

“We get work from weddings, funerals, it is like a balance. But from last year we are like 75 percent down in sales, but bear in mind September is the slowest month for florists because everybody is doing back to school stuff.”

Toya Tinker, general manager of KEVCO Digital Printing, said: “We had a few customers early yesterday but things were kind of slow. We hope things would pick up by the end of the day.

“People have been coming in for banners and social distancing signs. These seem to be the most requested things now.”

Tia Allen, general manager of Furniture by Design, said: “Right now our first day we are just doing deliveries and taking inventory to go out and do deliveries we have scheduled for the rest of this week.

“So far, so good. No complaints. These are orders we had backed up from before the lockdown that are just coming in. Due to COVID-19, for the past four or five months it has been very difficult for our store here in Nassau and also for our store in Fort Lauderdale because of the back-up.”

Ms Allen is looking to clear the backlog in orders by the end of the week. “Business is going good thus far. So far, so good and no complaints.”