Massy Stores opens latest branch in Freeport

Massy Stores Trinidad opened its latest branch on Tuesday in Freeport, the second in central Trinidad and the 21st in the Massy Stores supermarket chain.

CEO of Massy Stores Trinidad Roxane De Freitas, at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, said its location is conveniently positioned to serve the "vibrant Freeport community" as well as customers who make the journey from north Trinidad to south Trinidad daily.

Massy Stores Freeport is at Highway Plaza at Calcutta No 1, parallel to the Solomon Hochoy Highway. The other central store is at Mid Centre Mall in Chaguanas.

"The Freeport parallel access road and the set-up of this location at Highway Plaza afford customers the time-saving convenience of doing their shopping en route to their southbound or northbound destination," De Freitas said.

The newest store is smaller than branches in Trincity, La Romaine, Marabella and Westmoorings. De Freitas said the company is getting closer to communities with a supermarket format that enables readiness.

"We (Massy Stores) adapted to operate from a smaller square footage to be flexible enough to have a presence in communities and bring the quality standards of Massy Stores closer to our dear customers," she said.

Staffers at the Freeport store are focused on serving all customers, she added, in keeping with the company’s standards and expectations of exemplary customer service.

The company understands, she said, that in these are challenging times, customers would want to stretch their dollar further than ever before.

De Freitas said, "That is why we stand behind our Massy Card programme, because Massy points extend the buying power of the customer."

She encouraged people to get a card, which is also available digitally via the Massy Stores app.

Other officials at the opening were chairman David Affonso, assistant VP property development integrated retail Tisha Maharaj, store manager Odessa Elcock and chairman of the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation Henry Awong.

The CEO said the company has partnered with New Age Recycling and Mega Recycling to recycle cardboard boxes. De Freitas estimated that a total of 38 metric tonnes of cardboard collected at Massy Stores locations had been recycled to date.

The company has also partnered with the La Quesa Early Educational Unit at the La Quesa Community Centre in Freeport to support the school's work in providing early childhood education to families in the community. The company started to work with the school a few weeks ago.

De Freitas said Massy Stores staffers brought some early Christmas cheer as they gave toys and hampers to students whose families had been affected by covid19 .

Maharaj also spoke, saying just three months ago the store area was an empty shell, and came to life in the form of the store through collaborations. She said one of Massy Stores' core values is collaboration.

Maharaj said the landlord of Highway Plaza, Deepak Lall, and his family walked hand in hand with company officials from the beginning. She thanked the Lall family and all other stakeholders for their input in the store’s opening.

Awong told Newsday that while the store is the second in central Trinidad, it is the first in his municipality.

He said, "The opening means a lot to the community in terms of local economic development for this area."

From what De Freitas said about the La Quesa community benefiting from the partnership, Awong said he was pleased with the initiative.

"I welcome Massy Stores into the region. Initially, when this building was before the corporation for building approvals, I never thought it would house the famous Massy Stores."