by Randy Bennett
Businesses are banking on Black Friday and the upcoming Yuletide season to boost poor sales.
So says president of the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) Trisha Tannis, who said tomorrow’s Black Friday sales are especially critical considering the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Several businesses have advertised heavily, some promising as much as 75 per cent off merchandise, while others slashed prices for the entire week.
“It is very important being part of the landscape of peak season promotions. This year you would imagine that it would be extremely important given essentially the implosion of economic activity that we’ve experienced and as you know under normal circumstances peak season is normally the period in which profits are made that for some entities will have to sustain them throughout several months of the year which may tend not to be as profitable,” Tannis told Barbados TODAY.
“We do need a relatively buoyant peak season as we head into December which is still the main month for economic activity.
“We could only hope that there is enough confidence going forward in the economy and the economic prospects for next year that people feel confident that they can still help money to circulate in the economy and not necessarily hold back more than they need to.”
Tannis, who is also the managing director of Courts Barbados, explained that while the impact on businesses differed depending on the sector, the retail sector had been especially hardhit.
She said it was also very important for businesses to adhere to the COVID-19 protocols during these times to limit the possibility of another possible shutdown.
“It is a mixed reaction depending on the sector that you’re in. Some sectors are obviously more buoyant than others and the feedback really is that while happy for the re-opening of the economy and the commitment that we hopefully are trying to avoid another shutdown as much as we can, that we have to be very, very responsible to ensure that we are compliant with all of the COVID-19 protocols even as we look to persons to increase their shopping activity with us,” Tannis said.
Some businesses that spoke to Barbados TODAY said they were eagerly looking forward to tomorrow’s activities.
Brand manager of Duty Free Caribbean Kay Richards, said she was expecting large crowds at Cave Shepherd.
“We’ve had a number of promotions on for Cave Shepherd, for Colombian Emeralds as well as for Pandora. We are hoping that we will see customers come out to take advantage of those deals, but the Cave Shepherd deals would have been on throughout the week so that we could control the number of persons that would be coming down to take advantage of those,” Richards said.
She said she expected a high volume of traffic for the Christmas period.
Meanwhile general manager of CashWiz’s Oistins branch, Dionne Luke said persons had been flocking to the establishment all week looking to take advantage of their deals.
“A lot of customers came through looking to see what we have in store so that they can have a gauge as what to expect. During the entire week we’ve also been having a lot of people coming in and buying stuff because we already marked down some of the items,” Luke told Barbados TODAY.
“I expect that tomorrow will also be a very hectic day for us.” (randybennett@barbadostoday.bb)
