Carbolic soap in high demand due to COVID-19
After the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Jamaica, Brown Man, a vendor on West Street in downtown Kingston, sought to capitalise.
It dawned on him that carbolic soap would be in demand.
“Mi a di fuss man start walk and sell carbolic inna COVID-19. Hear how mi start sell carbolic. Mi is a higgler, mi sell inna di arcade. When mi hear bout di first COVID case weh dem find out a Bull Bay, fi di whole week me a sell, nothing nah sell. One Friday mi move from mi stall and seh mi need fi find something fi sell,” he told THE STAR.
Brown Man said that he was walking the streets of downtown Kingston contemplating what goods he could buy for resale when he remembered that carbolic soap is a germicide.
“Mi buy three box and right away me ask somebody fi watch mi stall, and in no time, mi walk and sell off di three box. The elderly people dem ask me for the naked carbolic but I didn’t have it. The Saturday morning, mi come walk down the whole town ‘til mi find the naked one and start beat it,” he said.
According to Brown Man, to say business is booming would be a gross understatement.
“It a work and a it me a throw partner out of and a it all put food pan mi table. Mi nuh just seh carbolic fi $100 … mi have argument back a it. Me tell dem seh the soap is a germicide, it good fi eczema, it kill germs, all a that. Older people weh mi buck up pan di road seh if a never corona, da soap here wouldn’t sell. This soap was bottom shelf and now it’s top shelf.”
And the demand has come with a price increase.
“Dem (wholesales) continue a raise the price. Every time me go fi buy a box a carbolic, the price gone up, and to me, the carbolic a get smaller since the COVID-19,” he said.
Paula Barnes, a vendor on Beckford Street, said “carbolic soap a sell hard”.
“Every minute it done! The wholesale dem a sell it dear, so we a fi sell it fi $100 a one. People come and buy in bulk. Normally we have it long, and den when me take a stop, me not even have hand fi sell carbolic soap,” Barnes told THE STAR. “A just lately it kinda gone back little, since the disease no so strong again. When it just buss, everybody a buy carbolic. We couldn’t even get it.”