Sales increased at MegaMart during Yuletide 2004

The last-minute bumper Yuletide spending that some retailers were hoping would pull them from a lacklustre early season, did not materialise for many, with Hurricane Ivan which hit Jamaican on September 10 being blamed for the soft sales.

Indeed, some retailers have estimated that sales declined by as much as 25 per cent this year over last year Christmas.

Calvin Morgan, manager at Sports & Games, a Mandeville store, estimated that sales during Christmas Eve - traditionally the busiest shopping day of the season - continued the 25 per cent reduction that had been evident earlier in the season.

Morgan had been hoping for a major last-minute splurge that would have turned around the entire season's sales numbers.

Gordon Tewani, manager at one of Kingston's best-known jewellery stores - the Mall Jewellers - had, based on the trend earlier in the season, projected a 25 per cent decline in sales over last year.

"But sales picked up," Tewani told the Business Observer yesterday - though not to the level to make the number surge past last year's performance. Tewani estimates that overall, sales this year Christmas season were 10 per cent below last year's.

Not all retailers shared the same experience. Take the case of MegaMart, one of Jamaica's largest retailers. Two weeks ago, the store's CEO, Gassan Azan, said he expected a last-minute rush in sales. Yesterday, Azan said his projection held, and that sales at MegaMart's Portmore branch were up 15 per cent on the numbers registered during the 2003 Yuletide season.

MegaMart's second store at Waterloo Road in Kingston was opened in December last year, so this year would be well above the sales that season, explained Azan.

"As we predicted it was a substantial but late season, and we are looking at record month," he said. "We still have a week to go in the season and what we see is very encouraging."

Azan said that a positive development during the season was a re-mix of items towards the higher-yielding foot-ware, clothing, household items.

"There was a higher mix of sales among the non-food items," he said. "During the three days prior to Christmas, those items did well. That was when the spending really started."

At Hi-Lo, Jamaica's second largest supermarket chain, flat sales were recorded over last year, an outturn that John Mahfood attributes to consumers having to re-channel their spending into home repairs following the hurricane.

"It seemed like the purchasing power for food items was reduced this year and it is understandable because of the hurricane," said John Mahfood, the chief operating officer in charge of retail trading at Grace, Kennedy & Company.

Mahfood, who has Hi-Lo under his charge, drew a contract with another of Grace's subsidiaries - the hardware store, Hardware & Lumber - where, he said, sales jumped 15-20 per cent above last year.

Jamaicans, according to Mahfood, are possibly still rebuilding - a factor which he believes explains the significant growth in sales of items like lumber.

The case of the popular Kingston flower shop Shields and Shields provides another case of just how far-reaching was the impact of the hurricane.

Geoffrey Shields, the managing director of that company, said sales declined this year by 15 per cent, because the plants were just not available for sale - having been destroyed by the storm.

"Sales were down because we just did not have the product," he told the Business Observer.

Shields said that the rains damaged the flowers and limited the quantities that were available for sale. He cited for example, the Poinciana plant - a popular Christmas gift which suffered severely.

"Some died," he said, "and we had to sell plants that in previous years you would not allow to be sold because of poor quality, but people wanted them, so what are you to do?"

Yet for others, Yuletide 2004 was just an average season - as has been the case, they claim for several years.

"Christmas was OK," noted Nadine Chin, assistant manager at Lee's Fifth Avenue, one of Jamaica's most popular clothing stores. "It was all right probably the same as last year but not less."

Like several other retailers, Chin blamed Ivan and the gas price increase for the flat spending.

The hurricane was also blamed by Carlene Whittle, assistant manager at Lord & Lady clothing store in Kingston, which had anticipated much more robust sales than the five per cent increase that was recorded.

"We cannot complain," remarked Chin- given what she said were the ravages of Ivan. "It is not what we anticipated, but knowing that Ivan hit.but it was a bit better than last year, maybe about five per cent over last year."

Like at so many other stores, "things got off to a late start" at Singers, according to account manager, Vaughn Gentles.

But the season never really fully recovered from the slow early days, with the company now saying that sales were not as strong as expected.

Gentles, however, said he would await the numbers for yesterday to make a full determination of the company's exact performance during the season.

The generally lacklustre season is despite a 24 per cent increase in the level of currency in circulation this year, and what was expected to be a $200 to $220 million withdrawal from the island's MultiLink system during Christmas Eve.

During the same day in 2003, some $152 million was withdrawn, the highest in any single day that year.

This year, Jamaicans doubled the level of outstanding debt from credit card over two years ago, to over $7 billion.

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