Bridgetown retailers reported a late surge in Christmas shopping in the final days before the holiday, as cautious consumer spending earlier in the month gave way to increased foot traffic from last weekend onwards, driven largely by paydays and last-minute purchases. Although some businesses said overall activity still appeared below last year’s levels, others reported robust demand after careful planning.
On Christmas Eve, Barbados TODAY visited some wellestablished city stores to gauge how sales had fared for the season.
Store operations manager for Bridgetown Duty Free, Stacey Wharton, said December had started slowly but picked up sharply in the days leading into Christmas Eve. “For the month of December, it actually started pretty quiet. We actually started to see an increase in business around December 18th, which would have been the payday for most Barbadians,” she said.
Store Operations Manager for Bridgetown Duty Free Stacey Wharton. (SB)
Wharton explained that while activity tapered off slightly after that initial rise, foot traffic increased again from Tuesday.
Wharton noted that perfumes and cosmetics remained the top sellers, followed by designer leather goods and toys. “The number one item would definitely be our perfume department… after that we have the designer leather, also toys,” she said, adding that household items such as curtains, bathroom mats and tablecloths were also in demand as customers continued preparing their homes for the season. She said the store’s free in-house gift wrapping service continued to attract customers and confirmed that between 80 and 100 additional staff were hired to manage the seasonal rush.
At FW Woolworth, managing director Martin Bryan described the first half of the season as subdued, with a noticeable lift only in the final days. “The first two weeks of the season were quiet-ish. I thought my last couple of days were certainly busy,” he said, attributing the uptick to last-minute shoppers.
Toys, clothing, toiletry sets, perfumes and gift wrapping supplies were moving fastest off the shelves, but suggested overall traffic was down year on year, Bryan said. “It appears as if it is down. We’re not seeing as many. It is not as busy as we would have seen it last year or even the year before,” he said, noting that aisles were less congested even when cash points were busy.
The perfume section in Bridgetown Duty Free was busy on Christmas Eve. (Photo Credit: Shamar Blunt)
The Royal Shop owner Hiranand Thani said the season had been uneven, with only “two or three” strong days compared to the usual four or five, but remained cautiously optimistic.
“On the whole though, I don’t think that the year has been bad,” he said, pointing to stock shortages as the main challenge.
He detailed repeated difficulties securing merchandise due to international supply and shipping constraints, particularly from the United States and Asia. “One of our challenges this year was getting stock, because some of our brands that we wanted to buy where we get good supply, we were getting very, very short supply. If we order five pieces of one item, we may get two.
That’s how bad it has been,” he said, adding that watches and jewellery continued to sell despite limited supply.
There was a hive of activity in The Royal Shop. (Photo Credit: Shamar Blunt)
He expanded on the issue further: “The suppliers are having their challenges from the USA as you can imagine, I don’t want to say too much there but …a lot of these items come either via Japan, via China, via Hong Kong, into the main distributors like the brand names. And if they have to pay these tariffs, well, obviously, you know what happens.”
“…So their supply themselves are getting, they’re doing it very carefully. So their careful supply hurts us in trying to get what we want.”
Managing director of Abeds, Eddy Abed, said the Christmas season at all three locations had been marked by a sharp and sustained surge in customer traffic over the past ten days, following months of preparation by his team.
“It really went berserk in terms of footfall traffic, in terms of customers wanting specific products from not this weekend gone but the weekend before, about 10 days now,” he said, describing demand as “strong” and “robust”. He attributed the performance largely to early operational planning, noting that preparations began well ahead of the traditional peak.
“The season for us started back in November and we geared for it and we tried to have stock in place earlier this year than we did last year,” he said. Abed added that procurement had been a long-term process. “Our buying team have been working for nine months, you know, styling and getting products here,” he said.
Despite the strong foot traffic, Abed declined to make immediate comparisons with last year’s performance, explaining that the company preferred to assess results only after the season had officially ended.
“It’s difficult for me to say because we don’t ever compare figures during the period. We wait until the period is finished and then we compare,” he said. He said a full review would follow the holidays. “So we will have a post-mortem after the holiday season, look at what went right, what went wrong.”
On the supply issue, Abed confirmed that ordering earlier had helped mitigate shortages experienced elsewhere in the sector although he acknowledged that logistical disruptions during the peak season remained unavoidable.
“Unfortunately, as good as we thought we were, as efficient as we thought we were, we still have one shipment arriving on the 26th of December,” he said, adding, “once we get into the peak season, all of the logistics goes haywire and you end up having late shipments.”
sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb
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