Businesses hoping to see a rebound in sales during the back-to-school period have so far been let down, and have already set their hopes on the good tidings of the Christmas season – if they manage to stay afloat.
Many business owners are also hoping that the $300 million stimulus package and the $40 million COVID-19 Relief Programme announced in Tuesday’s Throne Speech will generate enough economic activity to revive a “stagnant” economy.
These are the views of long-standing businessman and former president of the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) Eddy Abed whose popular fabric store Abed’s is bracing for a 30 per cent falloff in back-to-school sales.
In addition to the economic turmoil caused by COVID-19, he explained that the “blend” of online and face-to-face learning outlined by the Ministry of Education for the start of the new school year was doing business no favours.
“My guess is that our sales are probably going to be down one-third…I wish I am wrong, and the falloff is less than that, but that is what our initial numbers are showing,” he told Barbados TODAY.
“Obviously parents have bought less uniforms, and the uncertainty generally has been a force that has really played on parents’ minds as to how much to buy, what they buy and what they do,” Abed added.
The former chamber president is even more concerned about businesses who do not cater to back-to-school shoppers after a summer with no Crop Over Festival and very few social gatherings.
“All of us are trying to get to the point where we see Christmas and move beyond that. Nobody is planning further than three months, because it is a rapidly changing scenario, we are really not sure what the end result will be and we are all trying to work as best as we can with our teams of employees, because this is a joint effort. That’s what it has to be,” explained Abed.
He also expressed satisfaction with a number of measures outlined in Governor General Dame Sandra Mason’s Throne Speech aimed at stabilizing the economy and keeping citizens employed. The measures included a move away from “impossible” International Monetary Fund (IMF) targets and a massive stimulus package.
“I am pleased that we have put money in that area and that we are doing as much as we can and the Prime Minister is obviously going to see if it works, and if it doesn’t, I am sure she’ll go back and fine-tune it. But ultimately we need people working and we need to get people back to work. I can’t stress that more than anything else,” the businessman declared.
At Woolworth, a major supplier of back-to-school items, Managing Director Martin Bryan indicated that he was also heartened by the measures announced in the Throne Speech.
He revealed that over the last two weeks, the store on Prince William Henry Street has seen a significant increase in traffic when compared with the last few months.
But he is hopeful that overall sales will improve as more Barbadians become employed.
“Our losses are in the double digits but the last two weeks for sure we’ve seen an increase, but that will start to offset some of the losses that we were going into back-to-school with, and we hope that this weekend into next week we can make some good ground and recover those losses,” Bryan explained.
“During the seven weeks that we were closed, we still had expenses… and absolutely no revenue coming in. Obviously the thousands of people unemployed right now is also a significant part as well. So while we would have made some gains, it will by no means mitigate the losses sustained and we would need to have an extremely good Christmas to make up ground,” he added.
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb
