AID would take ‘nuisance’ of curbside over closure any day

Although they described it as “tedious” and a “nuisance”, the heads of AID said yesterday they would take curbside over being closed indefinitely any day.

Harold Watson, chairman of one of the country’s largest automotive and home goods chain of stores, and Jason Watson, the company’s president, spoke yesterday to the challenges of condensing a typically high volume business to only curbside, since Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis announced new business restrictions, weekend lockdowns and tighter curfew hours to help curb the spread of COVID-19.

“Curbside requires a whole lot more people in order to function because they have to see it online and then they place their order, then they come and say, ‘no I want to see another color’, so it goes back and forth and it’s really a nuisance, it’s illogical to me,” said Harold Watson.

It was just a few weeks ago that businesses were allowed to operate with customers in-store after going months on end during the first lockdown measures without being allowed to operate at all.

While businesses thought the worst was behind them, growing numbers of COVID-19 cases – which now hover above 6,000 – prompted the competent authority to implement new restrictions.

Still, Jason Watson said the company is satisfied enough to continue operating despite the challenges

“At least we are still open and can serve customers to some extent, rather than being closed completely. So I would take curbside any day over being closed even though it’s difficult,” he said.

“Because you know you may have a lot of customers who may come who may have placed an order online or by phone or by WhatsApp, but when they get here they say they want this, they want that, a different color, or something else, that kind of thing. So, it becomes a little bit tedious. And for each customer, the effort you have to put in is much greater than the in-store foot traffic.”

As the holiday season approaches, which is the time when Bahamian businesses typically make the majority of their revenue earnings for the year, Watson said he’s hopeful the government will soon relax restrictions to allow for easier commerce.

“I’m hoping that they will allow in-store traffic at least by November. It’s going to be difficult to do it curbside. But I assume when they open the borders with the new protocols allowing visitors in, where they can be tested at the border and be tested again after five days, they’re going to open everything up at that point,” he said.

Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis is expected to deliver a national address today ahead of the planned November 1 full reopening of the tourism industry.

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/aid-would-take-nuisance-of-curbside-over-closure-any-day/