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Wednesday, July 30, 2025

DOMA not giving up

PoS can return to its former business glory

by

Chester Sambrano
2163 days ago
20190830

Pres­i­dent of the Down­town Own­ers and Mer­chants As­so­ci­a­tion Gre­go­ry Aboud says notwith­stand­ing cur­rent chal­lenges with is­sues like wreck­ing, va­grancy, and crime busi­ness in the cap­i­tal has come a long way over the years.

Tak­ing a look back, he said some of the ear­ly busi­ness­es were owned by Por­tuguese, Eng­lish and French peo­ple.

"A lot of the Por­tuguese busi­ness­es were in the bev­er­age busi­ness for want of a bet­ter word. The first su­per­mar­ket in the coun­try was formed by Mr Can­nings which went on to be­come what we know to­day as the Massy Group. These were the orig­i­nal par­tic­i­pants in down­town busi­ness."

By the 60s the busi­ness land­scape start­ed to take a dif­fer­ent shape with the in­tro­duc­tion of Syr­i­an busi­ness­men.

"Af­ter the war years, a new class of mer­chants evolved pri­mar­i­ly from the ped­dler class of which my fore­fa­thers are part of that class. Peo­ple of­ten say that they were ven­dors. We were nev­er ven­dors. Our fore­fa­thers were ped­dlers. We didn’t pitch a stall in front of any­body’s door, we ac­tu­al­ly went from door to door in res­i­den­tial neigh­bour­hoods, that is what my fore­fa­thers did, and from the cul­ture of sav­ing and the cul­ture of pru­dence came enough to es­tab­lish them­selves to own a shopfront and to grow."

Aboud said in the 70s a lot of busi­ness­es were de­stroyed dur­ing black pow­er ri­ots and then again in 1990 dur­ing the at­tempt­ed coup. He es­ti­mat­ed that at least 40 per cent of busi­ness­es nev­er bounced back.

But he said the con­struc­tion of the Bri­an Lara Prom­e­nade has helped in boost­ing busi­ness.

Now, the DO­MA pres­i­dent is of the view that Port-of-Spain can re­turn to its for­mer busi­ness glo­ry.

"It is im­por­tant to have a city to have that so­cial ex­change where peo­ple from all walks of life can meet each oth­er, and that is one of the rea­sons why we will not give up on Port-of-Spain, one of the rea­sons why the coun­try should recog­nise the need to pro­tect com­merce in Port-of-Spain and the oth­er towns and cities."

 


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