Christmas shopping is swinging into high gear with Saturday expected to see large crowds trying to get last minute gifts and food supplies. Along Regent and Robb streets, many families were seen on Monday entering various stores to do their Christmas shopping.
Admittedly, it was a bit of a hassle to comfortably traverse downtown, with everyone wanting to shop for affordable prices, quality coupled with the surplus of vendors offering their wares.
Beepats, one of the more popular and populated stores in Georgetown around Christmas was visited by Stabroek News, where the supervisor of the store stated, “The items that are in high demand are Air Wicks, cookies and detergent. Around this season many people are cleaning around their homes and they want the house to smell nice and fresh when they are finished.” The price range for the Airwick is $900 to $1,600, and the cookies range from $1,000 to $1,900.
Another store along the Regent Street visited by Stabroek News was Thrifty Shopping Centre. The supervisor of this store who asked that her name not be mentioned said, “This store is a hardware store, we don’t necessarily deal with stuff like decorations and blinds and so, but anything customers come to buy that we have in stock we will sell them.”
When asked what item is demanded the most by customers, she replied, “We normally sell by carton so everything does sell out. The price range will vary depending on what the customers come to buy but we usually do wholesale.” One customer by the name of Angelique Bobbsemple who was at the time buying Air Wicks for her home told Stabroek News, “This one smell nice, like I want buy out all but I have to budget myself because I have a list of other stuff to buy and I don’t have a lot of money.”
Dilan Ellicock who sells obliquely opposite the Thrifty Shopping Centre, has fruits such as apples and grapes, as well as cookies, nuts, and wine. He said the item most in demand is the apple. “Everybody does come and buy out my apple and all the other stuff, grapes and suh too but mostly the apples.” The price ranges for the apple from $120 to $200 each. Black grapes are $1,200 per pound and nuts are $800 per pound.
Another vendor by the name of Kenya who usually sells decorations every year, offered that the most in-demand item around this time is the Christmas Garland. “This here is mostly needed by most of my customers because I have the good quality.” The price range is from $500-$2000. She also stated that the other items she had were sold out.
A sales representative by the name of Wanicka who sells in the appliances department at Courts Guyana on Main Street said that the most popular appliances for this year are the iron and blender. She added that these have been sold out and the company has had to restock because they were in high demand. The price range for the blender goes from $6,000 to an eye watering $40,000. Stabroek News spoke to a customer at the time by the name of Shevon Lewis, who was shopping for an iron. She stated, “Waah, it pricey but it worth it, I gon use it Christmas after Christmas.” Another customer who chose to remain anonymous said “I wanna buy the blender but meen gah all the money this year man.”
In Guyana Stores, this newspaper spoke to Nesha who is a supervisor at the firm and she said all of the items are selling but mostly the toys and school items. “Mostly medical stuff, like scrubs and so on for the people in nursing school. Parents are buying a lot of toys to surprise their children and we also have a lot of tourists… because them foreigners coming and buy also.”
Yesterday, Stabroek News visited the Giftland Mall where large crowds are normally seen doing their annual Christmas shopping. The newspaper spoke to Medhi Gomes, the manager of Sassy Styles, a boutique that sells a variety of dresses for all occasions. The price range for the dresses is $11,900 to $18,900. “The items that are high in demand are the gowns for social events like staff parties [and] graduations [as] most people come and looks for those, but all in all everything sells.” The opening hours of the store are from 9:00 am to 11:30pm.
The supervisor of Urban Life, another store in the mall, spoke to Stabroek News and explained that the top selling item in the store is clothing. The owner of Mode Shoes also spoke to Stabroek News concerning their business hours and she informed that her store will be open the same hours as the Mall. She added, “The most selling items in my store are the shoes and sandals, the prices are from $5000 to $9500.”