- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 02/Sep 05:21

Slow back-to-school sales

With less than a week to go before the start of the new school term on September 8, the back-to-school shopping season is usually in full swing. But when Newsday visited book and school supply stores in Port of Spain on September 1, there was a notable lack of shoppers. Despite the excitement over the Independence weekend, the streets were scant and the stores almost empty. The manager of Mohammed's Book Store said the slow pace wasn’t just because of the public holiday and had been the trend over the past few weeks, even as the new term draws near. She said she hoped the flow of customers would increase in the coming days as the return to school gets closer. “This year different. You would expect as it’s the last week before school, things would pick up, but it real slow. It’s like every year it get worse and worse,” said one attendant at Brother's Keeper, a clothing store selling school sneakers on Henry Street. However, he was hopeful that the nation’s shopping tendencies would provide a boost in business later in the week. “Trinidadians like their last-minute shopping. I don’t know where the money does come from, but they does get it, and hopefully we could get something out of that.” One woman selling used books in the area also cited low sales. “Today dead and yesterday (Independence Day) was even more dead.” She said she hoped the school supplies and book grant by the Education Ministry would provide some relief to vendors, especially those selling pre-used items. “People who on those grants don’t really look for new things anyway, because the small money they get need to stretch, so they rather buy from us. They get the same book and most of them are like new, so we are hoping this grant could benefit us sellers too.” In a media release on August 25, the ministry said 5,248 payments of the $1,000 grant had been made, with a remaining 14,752 payments scheduled for compilation by September 5. The ministry said priority consideration would be given to people who are unemployed, receiving public assistance, have disabilities, or live in low-income households. The ministry said notification of payment would be sent via email and encouraged beneficiaries to regularly check for payment confirmation. The post Slow back-to-school sales appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.