San­dra Chouthi

The name Amer­i­can Stores has its gen­e­sis in the oc­cu­pa­tion of the Ch­aguara­mas naval base by Amer­i­can sol­diers dur­ing World War II in the 1940s.

The fur­ni­ture store got start­ed by Sa­jard Ho­sein and his wife Do­ra in 1950. That was 64 years ago. Ho­sein would buy the fur­ni­ture of Amer­i­can sol­diers leav­ing Trinidad's shores to head back home, re­pair it and re­sell it, hence the name Amer­i­can Stores. The first store was lo­cat­ed on Aber­crom­by Street, Port-of-Spain.

To­day, this $100 mil­lion fam­i­ly-owned busi­ness has 13 stores and a ware­house in T&T: three in Port-of-Spain (Dun­can, Prince and Hen­ry Streets); St James, Mt Hope, Ari­ma, San­gre Grande, Ch­agua­nas, Cou­va, San Fer­nan­do and Pt Fortin; and two in To­ba­go on Mil­ford Road and Main Street. The T&T-head­quar­tered Amer­i­can Stores Ltd is set for ex­pan­sion.

Tana de Fre­itas, the com­pa­ny's chief op­er­at­ing of­fi­cer, said Amer­i­can Stores plans to open an­oth­er ten stores in Trinidad, and ex­pand through­out the re­gion. "We're look­ing to go in the way of Wal­mart, so we want to keep ex­pand­ing the com­pa­ny," she said.

The Cou­va branch was opened in 2012. Three more are planned in south­east, cen­tral and north Trinidad, which in­cludes a flag­ship store in St James. The com­pa­ny has a sev­en­mem­ber board, three of whom are non-fam­i­ly mem­bers.