PICKED BARE

Vincentians shelled out a handsome sum on Christmas shopping, and some business operators in Kingstown believed that at a glance, this year’s takings surpassed last year’s figures.

In the last two weekends before Christmas Kingstown was “chock-a-block” with thousands of people. Some stores, opened for Sunday shopping, were forced to close their doors early because of the number of people wedging themselves into the buildings.{{more}}

“We were very, very pleased,” Gwenette Forde of Layne’s Enterprises told SEARCHLIGHT. Led by outstanding sales in household items Forde said that 2006 was clearly a better Christmas season than the previous year.

Manager of Y De Lima, Annette Gibson was also singing the tune of success as her company could not supply enough electrical items to meet the demands of the Christmas rush.

“Business was better this season over last year’s season,” she said.

Gibson who said that she is looking forward to 2007 with great anticipation said that besides electrical appliances Y De Lima saw good sales in jewelry and stoves.

Christmas 2006 was also time to shop at Courts, as the furniture and appliances giant ushered in 2007 with an almost empty showroom, especially the furniture section.

“Furniture sales showed a lot of movement this season,” said Managing Director Edward Newman. He said that the Christmas season was at least on par with the previous year saying after the usual gradual build-up, the customary last minute rush kicked in late December.

Meanwhile Managing Director of Singer, Candy Vieira, also reported very good sales but said that he did not have full stock.

“When I knew VAT was coming I cancelled some orders and by the time it was announced that VAT was being introduced in May instead it was too late for me to change around,” Vieira said.

He explained that because a lot of his stock comes from places like Italy, it was difficult to make changes in the orders. Vieira said this may result in a slight decrease in sales from 2005’s Christmas figures.

“But it was better than 2004 for sure,” Vieira added.

Supermarkets were seemingly not left out as both Aunt Jobe and NP Food City recorded very good sales.

“I don’t know where it is coming from but there seems to be a lot of money in the economy,” said Luke Boyea of Aunt Jobe.

He said that Christmas sales were excellent, considerably up from the previous year.

Gaileen Mofford of NP Food City said that she was forced to continually replenish her stocks, especially the liquor selections. As for Greaves supermarket, Neville Greaves said that sales “weren’t bad”. He said that the supermarkets saw the usual Christmas activity.

While all of the businesses interviewed expressed great optimism about how this dawning year will pan out Greaves remained cautious.

He noted that the recent budget presentation and the coming implementation of the VAT did not give much reason for optimism but rather a wait and see approach.