- photo by dionne Rose

While the Yuletide season has brought more shoppers out on to the streets, the car parks are congested - though slightly less than last year - some businesses are reporting that commerce is a bit depressed.

"Sales have just recently picked up within the last week of Christmas, but in terms of the heavy demand and the usual rush, it is nowhere it was in terms of last year," said Omar Azan, chief executive officer of Boss Furniture.

Azan who sells beds and other furniture said there was a 25 to 30 per cent reduction in volume sales.

"It feels nothing like Christmas, it feels like a regular month-end with a little extra," said Azan who is also president of the Jamaica Manufactures' Association.

Wayne Chen, who heads up the family owned grocery chain, Super Plus Food Stores, said the season has been slow in terms of sales.

"What we have found is that I don't think people are going overboard this year, they are buying a little extra, but given the fact that most of our customers are ordinary working Jamaicans we still expect to see a busy last two days before Christmas," said Chen on Monday.

Still, there was a noticeable lack of activity in some of the grocery chain's stores.

Another popular retailer, Carby's is seeing a regular streaming of customers, but even there the activity is low-key compared to the crush of last year.

Indeed, sales and specials are rare at Christmas - a period when retailers do not have to entice business into shops - but this year Carby's has a 15 per cent discount on offer if customers buy three of the same item.

Sachel Carby, manager of Carby's Souvenir Discount Centre and Craft Village in Twin Gates Plaza, in St Andrew, said sales were on par with last season's.

No increases at Carby's

"It is about the same for this time last year. There has not been an increase or a decrease as yet," said Carby.

Meanwhile, Lascelles Anderson, manager of Lerner Shop on King Street in downtown Kingston said while shoppers were buying, sales were about five per cent lower.

"We offer discounts to all our customers. They want the goods but they don't have the cash," said Anderson.

"Last year you find some of them purchasing three, four blouses but this year they cut down to two," he said.

Indeed, the new phenomenon of Christmas discounting has also hit the streets.

The mass of vendors that is strewn across downtown, adding to the Yuletide spirit unique to downtown Kingston, has not changed. Nor has the bargaining over price.

What has changed is that willingness to sell for less, in order to land the sale.

Several vendors told Wednesday Business that was the only way they had been able to make sales, and that the discounting had been landing them business.

One shopper told Wednesday Business that she was looking for the best deal because things were "hard" this year.

dionne.rose@gleanerjm.com