Retail giant celebrates 102 years in business
ONE of the pioneers of the retail industry is celebrating its 102 years of existence in the country this year.
Courts general manager retail operations Hamendra Prasad said they celebrated the event with a birthday sale every year however they had not done so in the past two years for obvious reasons.
Yesterday Courts launched its birthday sale at their Rodwell Road, Suva branch which would be rolled out to all its other branches.
Mr Prasad said there had been challenges but they had grown from strength to strength and had refurbished their stores Fiji-wide.
He acknowledged that the past two years had been challenging with COVID-19 and supply chain issues which had forced some businesses to pass down the increased cost to their customers.
“This year basically we have fuel price increase and inflation so that’s a bit of challenge for us and for our customers.
“However at Courts, we are trying to overcome the challenges and minimize the burden on our customers,” he said.
Meanwhile they have also recorded a drop in their hire purchase customers after COVID.
Mr Prasad said customers were going through challenging times but there were some customers who were now coming up to repay their hire purchase accounts which was a good sign.
In terms of the buying patterns of consumers Mr Prasad said they had noticed a change in buying behavior for consumers.
“With inflation and cost of living increasing, customers have changed their spending habits. Customers are buying but not as much. The price has increased because we are trying to maintain that sales but the volume has decreased.”