Storeowners expecting increase in sales today

Despite a slow start to the Christmas season, many storeowners are hoping for an increase in last minute shoppers today, Christmas Eve.

While speaking with The Barbados Advocate, it was clear that many storeowners in Sheraton Mall agreed that there had been an extremely slow start to the Christmas shopping season.

Suleiman Bulbulia, manager of the Abeds Department in Sheraton Centre, expressed that for the Abeds store in particular, there was a slow start to the season when compared to previous years.

“It did start off kind of slow. Usually you would see some activity in October or November, but it was not as in previous years. However, within the last week or week-and-a-half ago, we have seen an increase in sales,” he said.

“So it has been picking up and it is still quite busy, up to today (yesterday), but we are definitely down compared to previous years in sales. We’re hoping that within the next day, which is Christmas Eve … that there would be an even larger increase in activity.”
The manager stated his belief that people obviously had a lot less to spend as things have gotten a little more expensive as the year progressed, but he hoped that since more people were coming out and filling the stores, that there would be an increase in their sales.

When a few customers spoke with The Barbados Advocate, many corroborated Bulbulia’s perspective, citing financial challenges. For one shopper, who wished to remain anonymous, she said that her bills increased but her salary remained the same, which meant that she had much less to spend on her family and friends this Christmas season. However, she was not going to let that hinder or dampen her spirit as she was forced to become more innovative when shopping for her family.