Ra­jiv Diptee, pres­i­dent of the Su­per­mar­kets' As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (SATT) calls the Prime Min­is­ter’s move to al­low su­per­mar­kets to open 24 hours dur­ing the Christ­mas sea­son a “sen­si­ble” one.

Be­tween De­cem­ber 10 and Jan­u­ary 3, gro­ceries and su­per­mar­kets will be al­lowed to open con­tin­u­ous­ly for 24 hours.

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley made this an­nounce­ment yes­ter­day at a me­dia brief­ing at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre, St Ann’s.

Rowey said this will al­low more spac­ing out of shop­pers over the busy pe­ri­od, which will help with so­cial dis­tanc­ing.

Su­per­mar­kets have been func­tion­ing at lim­it­ed hours since April as part of Gov­ern­ment’s mea­sures to re­duce the spread of COVID-19.

“It is one of the most sen­si­ble moves that the Prime Min­is­ter can do for the Christ­mas sea­son in light of the fact that we are try­ing to im­ple­ment so­cial dis­tanc­ing in a bid to re­duce crowds at the stores,” Diptee told the Guardian.

Diptee said that su­per­mar­kets will con­tin­ue to be re­spon­si­ble and ad­here to strict health pro­to­cols to en­sure that every­one is pro­tect­ed.

A customer shops at a supermarket on Charlotte Street, Port-of-Spain, yesterday after Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley announced that supermarkets will be allowed to open for 24 hours daily.

ANISTO ALVES

“Our three tenets at the as­so­ci­a­tion is built up­on the pil­lars up­on hand wash­ing, mask-wear­ing and so­cial dis­tanc­ing.”

Diptee added that in a stake­hold­er meet­ing with the Gov­ern­ment they did bring up ex­tend­ed hours for su­per­mar­kets to re­main open and he is hap­py that the po­si­tion of SATT was tak­en in­to con­sid­er­a­tion.

Al­though they are pleased with the Prime Min­is­ter’s de­ci­sion, he said that there would be ad­di­tion­al costs for su­per­mar­kets as they will need more se­cu­ri­ty.

De­spite 2020 be­ing a chal­leng­ing year not on­ly for the su­per­mar­ket in­dus­try but for the en­tire econ­o­my, Diptee as­sured that cus­tomers can still ex­pect bar­gain prices for the Christ­mas sea­son.

“We have al­ready worked out deals for the Christ­mas pe­ri­od with our sup­pli­ers. We have worked on spe­cials and deals. We cer­tain­ly have made the ef­fort to get the tra­di­tion­al sta­ples of snacks, bis­cuits, choco­lates, sparkling wines to have those avail­able. As for prices, every­one has deals and the com­pe­ti­tion is fierce.”