The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Federation of Retailers’ co-chair yesterday said “there’s not a single merchant I’ve spoken to” who has escaped COVID staffing shortages as she branded Christmas “hit or miss”.

Tara Morley told Tribune Business that the explosive increase in COVID infections linked to the Omicron variant had struck at the worst possible time for Bahamian retailers, striking in the week leading up the Christmas holiday that, for many, represents the busiest sales period in the year.

With the sector still grappling with inventory shortages and product delays resulting from the global supply chain crisis, she added that retailers were “rolling with the punches” as Omicron further compounded their multiple challenges.

Revealing that some retailers and restaurants have been forced to cut opening hours and shifts, and call in healthy staff to work overtime and cover for COVID-infected or isolating colleagues, Ms Morley joined the Bahamian tourism industry in urging the Government to reduce the 14-day quarantine period in line with the latest US and UK requirements.

She argued that this would allow previously sick staff, who subsequently tested negative for COVID-19 and were given the medical all-clear, to return to work faster and relieve the growing burden placed on both their employers and fellow workers through multiple absences.

Disclosing that she knew of one retailer, who she declined to name, running out of stock over Christmas because their inventory shipments did not arrive in time due to supply chain bottlenecks, the Retail Federation co-chair said she was also aware of one non-retail business where all staff members caught COVID at their Christmas party.

Besides staffing shortages, Ms Morley said some merchants had suffered from having a significant percentage of their customers isolating at home due to COVID-19 and unable to shop. She added that Christmas performance had been impacted by location and target market, with retailers with multiple stores reporting that some sites did “gangbusters” while others fared poorly.

“It’s been quite the start to the New Year,” Ms Morley told Tribune Business. “The supply chain issues are still carrying on, and this whole COVID mess is creating a lot of challenges for staffing purposes. It’s definitely having an impact.

“There isn’t a single retailer I’ve spoken to who has not had an issue. Anyone who says otherwise does not know what is happening or enjoying pure luck. At some point or other, they’re going to get hit with it.

“There are some restaurants operating with a 15 percent staff infection rate. It’s really great, and I’m happy for businesses where remote work is feasible, but for operations like hotels, restaurants and retail stores, that requires an in-store physical presence. It’s ultimately going to have an impact,” she continued.

“Quite a few retailers and restaurants have had to reduce hours or shifts to accommodate staff shortages. All the team that isn’t sick is getting much more pressure applied to come in and work longer hours and cover shifts for people caught with COVID. It’s just an added pressure with everything else going on.”

Ms Morley backed the Bahamian hotel industry’s call for the Government to reduce the 14-day quarantine period for workers infected with COVID, and bring it into line with the seven days mandated by the UK and five days required by the US.

“I think it is definitely something we should be following similar to other countries,” she told this newspaper. “The 14 days appears to be outdated as far as I can tell.

“As long as people are following the guidelines of the health advisers, and making sure anyone coming back into the workforce tests negative, double negative, for the period doctors recommend... It seems people are testing out earlier than the 14-day period, and that will certainly alleviate the burden on someone testing positive coming back to work.

“It will also alleviate the burden on colleagues that have to come in and cover extra shifts. I think it really just helps any business that requires an in-person presence. The sooner we get team members back up to full capacity, the lesser the burden on all staff and the business. Truly it’s been a lot of burden on team members having to come in and work those shifts last minute.”

Describing Omicron-related staffing shortages as “an additional logistical challenge to running your business”, Ms Morley added: “I don’t know of any stores that have experienced a full wipe-out of staff. One business I know, and it’s not a retailer, it’s in a completely different service industry and staff can work remotely, but it had a staff party and every single person got it.”

As for the retail industry’s festive season, which can account for up to 40-50 percent of some merchants’ annual sales, she told Tribune Business: “Christmas for a lot of retailers was very hit or miss depending on whether shipments arrived or not, and these staff shortages started right before the busiest period. The timing of this [Omicron] was not ideal; it was crunch time for retailers.

“It’s an amalgamation of issues. There’s a lot of additional headwinds facing the retail sector. I don’t know of anyone that’s not had a few staff members test positive. Everyone is just rolling with the punches and everyone’s just doing their best to navigate through this mess.

“There are probably some retailers that had a great Christmas, and some that did not have a good Christmas. I know of one retailer that ran out of stock because their shipments did not come in on time, and it messed with their figures. There were other retailers where a lot of their clients had COVID so they did not get the regular volume of December shoppers because they were at home.”

Ms Morley added that supply chain woes, such as increased freight costs and delayed orders/extended delivery times, have “not calmed” yet and she predicted that they will persist for at least another six months and possibly the whole of 2022. “The key to 2022 is going to be remaining flexible,” she said.