Little love for Valentine’s - Cupid’s arrow misses many merchants
Published:Monday | February 15, 2021 | 12:19 AMJonielle Daley/Staff Reporter
While many couples flooded St Elizabeth beaches on Sunday, freelance photographer Nigel Jones traipsed around scouting for couples he could snap up with his camera.
For the first time, Jones travelled from Santa Cruz to Alligator Pond on Valentine’s Day hoping to make extra cash amid blighted earnings from COVID-19.
After two hours of walking between Oswald Seafood Restaurant and Bar and Little Ochie, the photographer had had no luck.
“When I approach people, they say they are not interested, but I don’t know how the rest of the day is going to go,” said the photographer of 30 years.
Valentine’s Day was a popular wedding day option in former years, said Jones, but the coronavirus outbreak, which emerged in Jamaica last March, has put paid to many traditions.
“The economy going down,” a glum Jones said.
Rose sales brought thorns to flower vendors on Waterloo Road in New Kingston.
A hawker who goes by the moniker Nico said that Valentine’s sales in 2020 were far better than this year’s.
“We usually get the bulk of our sales in the night. When di couple dem a go home, dem would stop and buy,” he said, explaining that the 8 p.m. curfew had changed shopping patterns. Now, he said, commuters are only interested in rushing home.
“Normally when it a touch Valentine’s Day, sales would come in from all angles,” said Nico.
Red roses are hard to find and even harder to buy, he added.
Instead of the flush of red roses that would normally line sidewalks, the few vendors that were present on Saturday afternoon had mainly white, yellow, purple, and pink varieties.
COVID-19 has changed the playing field not just for roadside sellers, but for major florists, too.
Chief executive officer of Shields & Shields, Geoffrey Shields, explained that the supply chain for rose imports had been affected from increasingly unreliable flights into the island. Jamaica mainly imports roses from Colombia and Ecuador, he said.
“The farms are closed because of COVID, so the production is down, so they’re just picking up back,” Shields told The Gleaner.
Though roses are three times more expensive than last year, because of scarcity and foreign exchange, he said the store has not increased its prices because of considerations for buyers.
“This year is one of the worst years,” said the florist, who has been operating Shields & Shields for 38 years.
Profit projections for the season are down by at least a third, he said.
Owner of La-Kay’s Bride in Half-Way Tree, Kay Williams, said she has not sold or rented any dresses this year.
“Usually I would be renting Valentine’s dresses and jumpsuits, but there is no ball or dinner happening now,” she said.
The shop she has been operating for 24 years has been closed for weeks.
This year, the Stage Four cancer patient sat along Constant Spring Road selling gift baskets she had made at a significantly cheaper price in hopes of finding dinner.