Even as some parents turn to online shopping to avoid the mad rush of in-person back-to-school shopping, Regent Street and its environs in Georgetown were still teeming with multitudes shopping for last minute deals ahead of the start of the new school year tomorrow.
“Sometimes you really can’t take chances on the fit of things like shoes and sometimes the trick is wholesale shopping. Some persons complain about prices but if you get things wholesale, it’s not so bad,” one parent told Sunday Stabroek yesterday.
Online shopping with its plethora of choices and in some cases more reasonable prices is increasingly becoming more popular among Guyanese but the shoppers and vendors Sunday Stabroek interviewed yesterday were for the most part content with local options that were on sale.
“You can’t really complain. The sales are coming. It’s nothing big but it’s coming. People are coming out to buy,” “Ms Dorette,” a Regent Street vendor, said when questioned.
As has become tradition, she and other vendors were dressed in their “school uniforms” and engaged in pantomime to the delight of shoppers.
It’s not clear whether the “uniforms” and show improved sales but it certainly helped to lift the mood of the area.
“You gotta have fun. Life is all about fun,” another vendor indicated. For her sales were lower than last year, which were lower than the year before but she was determined to keep smiling.
“The wholesale prices in stores drawing away customers but what you gonna do? You can’t grudge people a bargain,” she maintained, while smiling.
While the adults endeavored to maintain a
positive attitude, some overwrought young shoppers had no such consideration.
“I need an umbrella,” a tiny shopper on King Street told her companion and despite the rather reasonable argument that she never actually walks in the sun or rain when on the way to school, a temper tantrum was unleashed.
“Miss say I need an umbrella! I want an umbrella!” she screamed to no avail.
Another shopper decided to literally throw herself at her mother’s feet when she was denied a bright pink haversack in favour of what her mother described as a “stronger” option.
In the face of this determined assault, the harassed mother decided to bend just a little. “Ask your father,” she advised before cashing her preferred option. “He can buy you a pink lunch bag,” she compromised.
