No problem. You have just told the Bahamian Consumer to go and shop in Florida as you have no intention of reducing your prices.

It is not the retailers' call. It is the Government's. Government is making life hell for retailers and shoppers alike. Further, they made the shoe and clothing exemption application so ridiculous it is small wonder many are unable to complete the application, which is probably what Government anticipated.

"And democracies are safer and more permanent that oligarchies, because they have a middle class which is more numerous and has a greater share in the government; for when there is no middle glass, and the poor greatly exceed in number, troubles arise and the state soon comes to an end." From "Politics" the Basic Work of Aristotle (384-322 B.C.).

When government first proposed to remove duty off clothing and shoes, the intention was to to help rescue the many clothing and shoe merchants who were going out of business due to stiff competition from online shopping and persons travelling abroad to shop. And to become more competitive, these stores will have to reduce their prices. But what happened is someone in the Ministry of Finance, who obviously was not informed or did not concern itself with what the intended results of the change in duty was, decided to hijack and sabotage the program and use it as a whipping stick, requiring merchants to come and bow every time they want to bring in goods and get duty free exemptions. So because of the ignorance and putting more red tape on merchants additional reporting requirements, some have decided to reject the government's plan and continue paying the customs duties in the regular manner. But what the government has admitted but failed to realize, is that there is a large volume of l importers who bring volumes of goods into the country and pay no duty or vat on them. Most of them clothing and shoes And so through governments own flawed policy and increase in red tape, they have now given these people an advantage in the market place. Some of these persons bring goods directly from China and their prices were below Miami's wholesale prices. And now persons who do not want to get caught up in the additional red tape and requirements the ministry of Finance is requiring to get exemptions will eventually buy goods from these individuals as a means for their business to survive. So if government would have have simply removed the duty off clothing and shoes like it was intended, rather than burying it down in red tape and cherry picking, not only would prices come down, but it would have put a squeeze of those who were paying no duty all along by making more businesses effectively able to compete with them. It is wrong to say prices will not come down. Two Examples: When customs duties were reduced or removed of fans, the price of a Lasko 18 inch fan came down from $55.00 to $45.00. The price of a 16 inch came down from $$50.00 to $45.00. In the case of car tires,since the reduction in duties on new tires less people are buying used tires. So the price of new tires did come down. And because of used tires having to be sterilized. and other requirements, used tires are no longer a great buy, compared to new tires and the environment is not being filled up as rapidly with used tires. So rather than trying to run the country out of a cigar box, government, more specifically finance, should have simply removed the duties off clothing and shoes as was the original intention. Market forces would definitely bring the prices down. Rather they try to make appear that they were doing such a great and marvelous favor for merchants when clothing and shoes have been duty free in most Caribbean countries for near a decade or more.

and the winner is the merchants who figures out a formula to take advantage of the new rules.

john's arguments is not quite right because the folks who smuggle goods are in the business of sselling junglist clothing, and they hardly have overhead.

as for me, I look at the online price , look at the local price and do the math.

this week i purchased some underwear which price was 50 cents less than what amazon offered, so i purchased right away.

> john's arguments is not quite right
> because the folks who smuggle goods
> are in the business of sselling
> junglist clothing, and they hardly
> have overhead.

Prove your statement or say you lie. The shops in Lyfod Cay and near Old fort Bay closed because no one shope there anymore..They learned to find away around the rules too.

Prove? I do not have to prove anything. Especially in this entertainment place.

But you are not exactly known for showing proof either.

I knew a young lady who worked in one of those high end shops. She told me she spent all day cleaning and arranging the items in the shop because no one shopped there. I do not know anyone who pays 1,200 for a bikini, or any similarly priced clothing item.

the average shopper in the bahamas is walmart people.

Retail in the Bahamas is dead and there is nothing anyone can do to revive it. Nothing.

It is so much cheaper and more convenient to shop on Amazon and have it delivered here by courier. I buy nothing but groceries in the Bahamas any more. And even those I am beginning to get delivered in bulk once a year for anything that is non-perishable.

If I were a retailer I would simply close up shop. There is NO hope. This is what progress looks like.

PROGRESS=WTO

Haitians = Good
Bahamian= Bad.

Not sure Madhatter's statement is accurate.

Likely more true to say :

Bahamian= Bad

In comparison almost all other nationalities = better natures people.

Tell me I'm wrong.

I can't remember a day when I wasn't embarrassed by at least some act or comment by a fellow Bahamian.

Chucky you are so right!

Dont fall for the fallacy that dumb/callous/lazy/whatever people only exist in the Bahamas. There are less than intelligent/wise/empathetic people all over the world. China, India, Austrailia, Canada, Europe **all** of them have a preponderance of not so intelligent people. Because we're in the Bahamas we just happen to see the smarter more industrious imports. Move around their country and check it

‘The average shopper in the Bahamas is Walmart people.’ You just hit the nail on the head. And that is why Michael Maura was trying to explain why prices in The Bahamas will not come down at the same amount of the tax break. Do you know Walmart owns of the factories that make the clothing they sell. The Sara Lee company that makes Hanes and Fruit of the Loom underwear. They own the company that also makes their ‘George and Martha’ label as well as ‘Faded Glory ‘. Also The Dickies you buy in Walmart is not the same quality you would buy in other stores. It is a lighter fabric and hence the label is different. And most of the electronics and appliances Walmart sells is refurbished. That is ok if you live in the US and can easily take it back but imagine shipping a 50 inch flat screen here and it only works for two weeks. Well when stores bring in items that are faulty they also have to take the loss on it. And in addition to the price on the items they also lose the freight, duty and VAT, which together sometimes exceeds the price of the items.

For years the clothing stores have said if there was no duty they would be able to compete with Miami. Now government has done that (if they meet the criteria) they start to say they shouldn't be forced to reduce their price. Fine you don't have to reduce your price, just pay the duty on the goods. If you don't want to pay the duty, then reduce your prices. Your choice.

I already saw this happening. Hence why i shop Amazon one shot, I get what I want for way less than what they charge here. And it's a good chance not every Joe blow will have a pair...

@Dawes where did you get the info that stores didn’t want to be forced to reduce prices. The argument was that the price decrease would not be equal to the price cut, at least not at first, and as the legitimate stores are able to gain market share and take the market back from unlicensed and fly by night importers then they can reduce prices more.

And to reiterate two points. 1. Why didn't the government put the same qualifying and reporting requirements when it removed the duty off airplane and helicopter parts and off clothes washers and dryers?
2. The fact is that government was supposed to remove customs duties and stamp taxes off all imported items that they charged VAT on. VAT is supposed to be a replacement or alternative tax and not an additional tax. But they continue to collect both taxes and continue to suck billions out of the economy.. Yet the national debt is growing about a billion annually.. They blaming the web shops for destroying the economy, but it is the over taxation that has killed the economy dead...

Agree with your above points, but not on Bahamians spending $600 MILLION per annum gambling. The thing with the back in the day numbers man was you placed your bet and that was it until perhaps the next day. No 24/7/365 gambling all over islands which is sucking the life blood out of the country as quickly as crooked politicians. It is is a combination of the two that has killed the economy. The price of commodities is sky high as it is............

Unfortunately the issues facing our economy are not quite that simply. Without getting into the morality of gambling and from a purely economic point of view when a person wagers one dollar in a gambling game, on average more than eighty cents of each dollar is returned back into the economy as customer winnings that can be used by the customers as they see fit. That means that 80% of each dollar is returned back into the economy. The remaining 20%, the difference between customer wagers and customer winnings is used to cover Gaming taxes and fees, operating costs like salaries, NIB, charitable donations, employee insurance, rent, BPL, BTC, water sewerage and other overhead and vendor costs. The balance is then profits to the shareholders. Are not all of these economic transactions inputs and reinvestments back into our economy? Conversely, when a merchant like those above who are receiving the duty tax breaks noted above spends a dollar to purchase apparel and shoes from the USA what happens to that dollar? What percentage and how much of that dollar is re-invested back into our local economy by the USA business owner who sells the apparel or shoes to the local merchant? We may agree or disagree with gambling but let's at least be intellectually honest with our arguments. You sound just like Peter Turnquest and Marlon Johnson, just making stuff up to disguise their incompetence and support their narrative.

johndumb writes" on average more than eighty cents of each dollar is returned back into the economy as customer winnings" What an ignorant lie. You just make this stuff up, eh?

Typical Bahamian, just call names when facts are inconvenient and you are too lazy to do the research yourself. Try and escape your intellectual trance and do your own research before making silly statements. That number is an uncontested fact.

This is a very simple point that Mr, Maura is making. If customs duties make up 30 percent of the cost of an item then cutting that duty by , say 50 percent, will not result in a 50 percent reduction in the selling price. The retailers cost of the item has decreased 15 percent not 50 percent. Mathematics is not the governments best subject.