City merchants report bright Christmas

The cash registers have fallen all but silent in downtown Belize City but as the merchants of Albert and Queen Streets count up their Christmas sales the consensus is that the traffic in the shops just about equaled that on the streets: that is to say, jammed. Hyacinth Latchman sampled some sellers.

Sunil Sadarangani, Owner, Doony’s Store

“I think Belizeans continue to prove that they are last minute shoppers. The last two weeks turn out to be very well and everybody on Albert Street who have stores were satisfied with the sales.”

Umesh Mahitani, Owner, Mikado’s Store

“Business was pretty good. We had, “buy one get one free” promotion so with that a lot of people took advantage of it. So I think it turned out pretty well for us.”

But not for everybody. James Brodie and Company, the nation’s largest and oldest retailer reports that its season was neither the biggest nor brightest.

Billy Musa Jr., Director, James Brodie

“Christmas was not as we expected. Christmas was very bad as it has been for the past five, six years.”

But Brodie’s lost was not shared by other large volume sellers. For an aggressive retailer like Courts there was ample reason for celebration.

Keith Slater, Managing Director, Courts Belize

“We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Despite the best efforts of Hurricane Mitch in October, Christmas turned out very well for us. We probably had our best Christmas ever in Belize.

We started off with the “one dollar down” promotion which was a great success. And that was accompanied by food vouchers and things like that. It was so successful that we decided to carry it unto Christmas and carry that right through to Christmas Eve.”

And virtually all the merchants believe that in 1999 things should be getting better.

Sunil Sadarangani

“For the New Year we are going to continue expand on the number of items that we carry. We are going to continue work on our prices to have cheap prices and continue to make things affordable for people by giving them credit and allowing them to pay on an easy installment plan.”

Billy Musa Jr.

“Hopefully with the revision of the business tax and the removal of VAT things should be better. I also feel that the proper control at the boarders at the Customs Department is where a lot of irregularities are still occurring. Things should improve though.”

Umesh Mahitani

“We had the nicest collection of fabric this year. We will even have a better collection for 1999. For 1999 I think it’s a time for everyone to change their curtains for the new millenium.”

Whatever Christmas merchandise did not jump off the shelves before the holiday should now be available at substantial discounts… that is if shoppers have any money left.