The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Several retailers yesterday described Christmas sales as “terrible” following a COVID-19 plagued nine months when they earned little to no revenue to cover their fixed costs.

Nicole Aranah, Lorene’s Department Store's operations manager, said that while Christmas 2020 had been satisfactory it was not on par with prior years due to restrictions on how many customers could be in-store at any one time. She said Palmdale performed best out of the chain's four locations because it “carries everything” whereas the others focus on specialised items.

Ms Aranah added that COVID-19 restrictions had dampened much of 2020 for retailers, saying: “You're talking from March until September where retail businesses did not have any money coming in. But yet we paid out because you still have to pay your bills.

"Most retail stores order their goods six months in advance. So you're basically looking at from January to May, goods were ordered. So they had to be paid for, even though we weren't open.”

Ms Aranah said Lorene’s simply cancelled many orders once it realised that COVID-19, and associated restrictions, were likely to last for some time and eliminate much of the back-to-school shopping season that the retailer relies upon so heavily.

Jack Moree, owner/operator of Sandys Department Store, said: “Name me one retailer who had a good Christma. Nobody could do anything with COVID-19. It was terrible, not good.”

Along with “losing Christmas", Mr Moree said he also lost the back-to-school season but is “hopeful” that when schools reopen in February, as announced by Jeffrey Lloyd, minister for education, “customers will buy uniforms and they will come, because we lost the entire last year".

Mr Moree added: “We ordered what we normally order for Christmas, but the customers just didn’t have the money. We have the stock. The only good thing about it is we don’t have to order for this year.”

John Cathapoulis, general manager of John's Shoe Store, said of Christmas: “Things went as well as to be expected. We didn’t under order and we didn’t over order; we are just fine. We have no problem with our inventory levels now. So it's pretty good.”

He added, though, that there was a “significant drop off” in sales compared to 2019 but is still “happy” with what he got.