The Courtyard Mall and the Caliente

The Caliente boutique

The advent of urban shopping malls in Guyana has accommodated a surfeit of small businesses — retail trade pursuits that include cafeterias, costume jewellery shops and boutiques.

Situated on Robb Street opposite the Stabroek News, the Courtyard Mall has attracted its own fair share of small business enterprises. Just over a year ago, New York-based Guyanese Mark Raghubir launched Caliente Boutique in the Courtyard Mall, adding to the various other modest business enterprises which he has been operating in Guyana. Raghubir told Stabroek Business that in establishing the Caliente he was simply being consistent with a tradition of “being in business.”

Since migrating to the United States about seven years ago he has established a