Once a month on a Saturday, between the hours of 6 am and 10 am, Dennis Street experiences a severe traffic jam. Women from all walks of life, wait patiently for the gates at Lot 85 to be opened at 7 am to snap the supposed best deals in town. Men and children are left in their vehicles to wait whilst their partners/mothers rummage through racks to find the best deals. The event, Wholesale Fashion Square, which is geared specifically at women’s fashion and accessories, is not like anything else I have ever experienced in Guyana. It reminded me of Next’s 5 am Boxing Day sale in the UK and Black Friday in the US. The mood and tone set were unbelievable. As I entered I felt at times as if all of the women in Guyana were at this sale. The term super cramped is an understatement.
I know you are wondering about the type of clothes on sale that would get any woman to queue up at 6 am. The brands available were Forever 21, Kenneth Cole, Guess, Jessica Simpson, to just name a few. Most can be categorized as brand name diffusion lines or as discount labels, like K-Mart for example. In comparison to retailers on Regent Street, the Arcade and even the Twenty One store on Sherriff Street the prices were at least 40% cheaper. The prices were the main crowd pullers and the cause of the fashion hysteria at Dennis Street. The genre of products available comprised handbags, clothing, sunglasses, shoes, shapewear and underwear, fragrance among other things.
After spending the first 30 minutes trying to move around the tent concept backyard pop-up shop, I came to the conclusion that a lot of women are very brand oriented and also more and more of them are becoming economically savvy. Women want fashion deals. I kept hearing comparative price analyses being made as they
