Trinidad-based, Home Store, opened its doors to Guyanese at the Amazonia Mall at Providence on December 3, 2022, and ever since the store says it has had to ‘work overtime’ to keep up with customer demand.
Home Store Supervisor, Annalisa McLennan, in an interview with the Stabroek News, said that since it opened in December, 2022, business has been good. Weekdays are slow, but the weekends are often very busy, said McLennan. During the Christmas season, McLennan added that the store was very hectic.
She offered that the word ‘busy’ would be an understatement. The Christmas season was so hectic that, “we literally ran out of items which had to be restocked…We are currently restocking, filling all the empty shelves, and we’re not only repeating the same items that were on display, but also restocking new products. Both new and the same products will be at the Home Store,” McLennan told Stabroek News.
Regarding the key question of affordability, McLennan said that the prices are good. She added, “Customers do compliment us on that, our products are not… what you would normally see in a regular store. It’s a variety of items to choose from, and in a different weight…You find like coming here you would see things, the prices are really good because the customers keep on coming and they are all recommending us to friends and family. Things that the customers may see online and unfortunately they won’t be able to obtain the item right away, they would come down to the Home Store and get.”
“We have some bed rest pillows, there’s no other store in Guyana that sells those and it is going like hot cakes”, she said. They have in stock a variety of bed sheets, curtains, kitchen utensils, bathroom utensils, mats, ornaments, stationery, flowers, vases and other items, she added.
The Home Store’s scheduled opening hours are 10 am – 8 pm Monday-Saturday, and on Sundays, 12pm-8pm.
To date, there are several branches of The Home Store in Trinidad totaling approximately 64,500 square feet of retail space. The first of these opened its doors in 2008. They are located in Barataria, C3 Centre in San Fernando, Pennywise Plaza in Chaguanas, The Falls at Westmall in Westmoorings. East Gates in Trincity opened in October 2022. After successfully being in operation for fourteen years, the decision was made to expand the brand regionally. The first such branch was opened in Guyana last year with a retail space of 12,000 sq. ft.
