Store owners follow protocols due to increase in rush amid COVID-19 shutdown

On Monday, the city store owners were strictly following the COVID-19 protocols and urged others to follow them. While noticing the recent increase in the cases of COVID-19, they urged their workers as well as the customers of adhering to the rules.

A leading businessman referred that any shutdown in future would screw a nail into the coffin of many businesses.

Eddy Abed, Managing Director of Abed’s, said that as the businesses are being allowed to remain open, the sale is also increasing these days.

Abed said that if they would shut down the island again, they would drive the nail into the coffin of various works and businesses, many individuals who depend on employment, many business people, many small and medium-size start-ups would not be able to overcome. He had not thought that was an option they could even look for. The Prime Minister said that correctly, that was a marathon, it was going to take a while to get there, and they had to respect that. That was not going to be over in six weeks’ time, it’s going to take a while.

Ronald Chapman, head of the COVID-19 Monitoring Unit, showed concerns that regarding the increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases. After the hike in the COVID-19 cases on the workplaces, the owners of the stores have been adhering to all COVID-19 protocols passed by the Ministry of Health.

Owner of Sole Addiction Barbados, Nancy Noumeh, said that her store has been getting average sales for the month. As the COVID-19 cases are rising continuously daily, protocols within the store have remained a priority.

Noumeh said, “It’s picking up now that it’s the end of the month, and it’s expected to pick up even more after the 11-Plus [exam] results come out. Foot traffic has been pretty busy, getting a lot of people coming and looking around as well. We just received the majority of our stock last week, [and] we have a little more to come.