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Thursday, December 11, 2025
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Super Value eyes 5-10% Christmas sales increase • Expects 8-10% Thanksgiving jump to continue SUPER Value is targeting a 5-10 percent year-over-year • Likely to keep all 13 stores increase in Christmas and holopen with no closings iday season sales, its president has disclosed, following a similar Thanksgiving jump that • Shoppers told ‘no need to saw it beat 2024 comparatives. fret’ on prices, costs Debra Symonette told TribBy NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
une Business that the 13-store supermarket chain expects Thanksgiving trends to hold for the upcoming festive period after the US holiday which traditionally marks the start of the winter tourism season - generated an 8-10 percent sales increase. Anticipating that consumers will continue to shop despite ongoing world economic uncertainties, she reassured that Bahamians “don’t need to fret” over the possibility of significant food price increases with costs
for most items now “holding pretty steady”. Ms Symonette also told this newspaper that Super Value is likely to keep all stores open, albeit with reduced hours, on days such as Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day following customer “push back” over its decision to shut the East Street, Wulff Road, Seagrapes Shopping Centre and Robinson Road outlets on Emancipation Day in a bid to cut staff and other expenses.
Explaining that a final decision on possible store closures will be taken nearer the time, she added that Christmas may also influence Bahamian shoppers to ignore the higher 10 percent VAT on some goods - reversing the trend that saw many concentrate on the uncooked foods that enjoy a lower 5 percent rate following the Government cuts implemented earlier this year. “I think it’s fair to say we were up 8-10 percent
for Thanksgiving sales,” Ms Symonette said. “I would say it’s pretty much what we expected. I wouldn’t say it exceeded expectations, but it was pretty much what we expected. The ham and turkey sales are going well enough, moving as quickly as we expected them to. “I hope we have enough. We have done our best to bring in and order an ample supply as a lot of sales are for Christmas as well. I think we have enough. We usually judge orders by previous years.” Optimistic that Thanksgiving sales trends will extend through the Christmas and New Year festive seasons, the Super Value chief said: “We actually did better this year [for Thanksgiving]. We feel confident that the same trends are going to follow for Christmas despite what’s happening
SKYLINE Lakes residents have voiced concerns over noise pollution from the Brickell Square project proposed by a developer chaired by Sebas Bastian, the Island Luck co-founder and PLP’s Fort Charlotte election candidate, which is also targeting a second phase, 108-room hotel. Attendees at the public consultation on the mixed-use, nine-acre retail and commercial office complex, which was held by the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection (DEPP), were especially unsettled by the
SEBAS BASTIAN project’s inclusion of an outdoor performing stage. Ansel Watson, Brickell Management Group’s president, sought to reassure that the structure would not be “a major stage”.However,
attendees argued that once a performance stage is built, the developer will “have absolutely no control as to what happens on that stage”. “This is not a major stage,” Mr Watson said. “This is just an outdoor structure. It's a stage platform. The stage doesn't provide noise, and there's no organised function to provide noise. It's an outdoor set-up of low-key activity, just as the fountains and everything else that you sit around and enjoy. “You got retail stores, you got offices. Everything is a professional environment set-up. There's a simple few square feet of stage, and that's distracting the focus in terms
Fire unit rescues Abaco from ‘worst outages since Dorian’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net MARSH Harbour’s volunteer fire department was last night on the verge of rescuing Abaco from “a pretty dark Christmas” after it provided Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) with emergency equipment to restart the island’s generation plant following the “worst outages since Hurricane Dorian”. Roscoe Thompson, head of the Marsh Harbour/ Spring City Township, told Tribune Business that the department “dropped off” the compressor normally used to help fill its oxygen tanks and breathing apparatus to BPL’s Wilson City power plant after critical equipment failures forced it to shut down completely.
ROSCOE THOMPSON Abaco residents and businesses were on Tuesday forced to endure load shedding that left them without energy supply for up to 17 hours or almost an entire day, with commerce brought to a standstill for companies without generators. Food stores and restaurants without back-up power supply
ENERGY - See Page B4
Bahamians told: ‘You’ must drive anti-corruption reform By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net GOVERNANCE reformers yesterday warned that Bahamian citizens must drive integrity and anti-corruption reforms given that successive administrations and politicians from all parties have been “fallible and inconsistent” in bringing “sustainable change” forward.
Matt Aubry, the Organisation for Responsible Governance’s (ORG) executive director, told Tribune Business that the group is using International Anti-Corruption Week to reinforce its message that improved integrity in governance, as well as reduced graft, will benefit all Bahamians by creating a fairer, more equitable society
CHANGE - See Page B9
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Top labour negotiator: BTC ‘in total violation’ on fraud-linked firings • Set to report carrier breached both industrial deals • Backs unions on failure to start formal grievance • Trade dispute filed; no progress with conciliation By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
of the whole massive structure of 94,000 square feet and 35,000 square feet.” Brickell Square will be located on the east side of Baha Mar Boulevard, immediately north of MacFit 360 Fitness and south of the Skyline Lakes subdivision. It will be separated from the subdivision by a 150-foot Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) reservation. One attendee inquired about the possibility of having a wall built to act as a buffer from the developments and construction work occurring near his neighbourhood.
A TOP government labour negotiator yesterday revealed he plans to submit a report asserting that the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) is “in total violation” of both its industrial agreements over the recent BERNARD EVANS controversial terminations of five employees. Bernard Evans, himself a former president of the Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union (BCPOU), which represents BTC line staff, told Tribune Business it was “totally disrespectful and disheartening” that the communications provider seemingly ignored disciplinary procedures that have been “in place for over 35 years”. He explained that, based on the outcome of a meeting involving himself and Howard Thompson, the Government’s director of labour, it appeared that BTC “didn’t go through the grievance process” set out in both the BCPOU and Bahamas Communications and Public Managers Union’s (BCPMU) respective industrial agreements when they fired the five staff - three of whom were terminated over alleged credit card fraud involving mobile phone purchases. Mr Evans, and both the unions, said that under the agreements BTC must first formally lodge and initiate a “grievance” against the employee(s) who allegedly committed an offence, and then supply the relevant union(s) - as their representative - with the evidence that justifies any disciplinary action taken.
PROJECT - See Page B9
LABOUR - See Page B8
STORES - See Page B4
Sebas chaired-project eyes hotel amid noise concerns By ANNELIA NIXON Tribune Business Reporter anixon@tribunemedia.net
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