Sales slow in Arima for Black Friday

While only a few stores in Arima and Shoppes of Arima chose to have Black Friday sales, very few customers took advantage of the opportunities. Stores which saw an uptick in customers were those which provided items traditionally bought for the Christmas season.

At Miguel Moses, the manager said they were anticipating good sales over the Christmas period.

“There’s a sale of 10-25 per cent off, both for Black Friday and for Christmas. So far things are very slow. Customers are holding on to their money and watching how they’re buying.”

At Detour, where there was a two-day Black Friday sale, as well as a Christmas sale, very few customers were seen in the store.

Raj Jadoo of Jadoo’s Trading Ltd said sales had been slow as covid19 had knocked down business.

“It’s bad, 31 deaths on Thursday and 692 cases, and we don’t know. A woman came in yesterday to get something, her son died yesterday from covid19, and today she came next door to play a mark, 4, but she’s not supposed to be outside. The mark played too, and I saw she came back again today.

"This is how the thing is spreading. She’s supposed to be home, but them ain’t care, 'Oh they only put covid19 on the certificate, but he didn’t die from that.' Things bad all over.”

At Standards, manager Marcia said people had been coming in slowly but steadily. She said this had been occurring consistently, both in-store and online.

“We have a sale on everything in the store, from 5-60 per cent off, and for the month of November we’re offering free delivery on purchases of $1,000 and over. We’ve seen a little more activity because of the sale.”

At Shoppes of Arima, lines were seen outside cloth store Yufe’s, as people lined up to purchase home furnishings and fabric.

At bookstore/toy store Shock’n’Stock, Nishard Pooran said while sales were less compared to previous years, people had started coming in to get ahead of the Christmas rush.

“It requires a lot more marketing to get a level of customers similar to what it was before. It wouldn’t be as high as before but we’re trying to make the most of it.

"People are still buying schoolbooks, as well as boardgames. People are home more so they’re buying more drinking games, more board games, family activities.”

At Home Land Furnishings & Fabric Land Stores, the manager said the turnout has been good so far.

“We can’t complain, people have been buying, purchasing household stuff, fabric, curtains, everything going well. We have a Black Friday sale, 15 per cent off from Friday to Sunday, and we have 20 per cent off on Christmas decorations, which will continue until Christmas. People are seeing us as a one-stop shop for their houses.”

She said sales were better than Christmas 2020 so far. “It’s better than last year, or at least it started earlier than last year and picked up better. We’re getting a larger turnout and people are shopping, I think they have nothing better to do and so they’re spending their money for Christmas.”