The Christmas shopping season officially ended late Thursday night on Christmas Eve. And while after the long three-day holiday weekend some store owners returned to an embarrassment of riches: empty shelves and stuffed cash registers, for others it was the complete opposite just the plain old embarrassment of dead stock and no money. Keith Swift checked in with a couple retailers for a feel of how spending went this Christmas.
Keith Swift Reporting,
With Belizean retailers still tallying receipts from Christmas sales and restocking shelves, today most are divided over how well they did this Christmas. For some like retail giant Courts it was a good year.
Keith Slater, Managing Director Courts Belize Ltd.
"Well Christmas was pretty good actually. I wouldn't say it was a record-breaking year but we had a pretty good run-up to Christmas in a fairly steady pack this year no great rushes."
KS: Did it meet expectations?
Keith Slater,
"I think we exceeded expectations. We actually are ahead of budget and last year but not by a huge percentage but still some very good numbers."
KS: Would you say you had an edge because people were able to buy this month without really spending any money?
Keith Slater,
"I think they take advantage of the good offers we have yes and the prices but yes we've got a steady stream of repeat customers also and they took advantages of all the offers especially the big prize."
But even with slashed prices, Tomasita Urbina right across the street at A&R Store says it was their worst year...ever.
Tomasita Urbina,
"It wasn't as good as it was supposed to be. We were hoping that if we had sales things would have been cleaned off the shelf but as you can see we still have a lot of stuff left."
KS: What went wrong? Do you think people just didn't have money to spend?
Tomasita Urbina,
"I would think that is the problem because we had a lot of cheap stuff and we didn't concentrate more on expensive toys for the same reason because we saw how the economy was going and we thought cheaper toys would sell more. Well some did sell but we still have a lot left."
KS: How does this year compare to other years?
Tomasita Urbina,
"It has been one of the worst. Every year we have been having good years except this year."
And those like A&R who didn't so well are hoping to at least break even and clear their shelves of excess Christmas stock with further reduced prices.
Tomasita Urbina,
"We are hoping to slash down some toys by 50%, some not all. But we are still giving 20% off on all toys until New Year's so some people who might be getting their money can still come and shop cause there are some toys we will slash down to 50%."
The sale at A&R continues through to Friday. And over at Courts the $100,000 draw in their Gold Rush promotion is Tuesday January 4th.
