In November 2002, Carl and Magda opened Shop 4 Less, an unusual store in the Landsome Plaza. While other merchants had simple products highly priced, Shop 4 Less came up with mainly dollar items and low-end products at the right price.

The Eldorado Mall to get new name soon

Five years have passed and the store moved from a rented space of 500-square-feet to an owned space of 20,400-sq.ft. Now located at Eldorado Shopping Mall, the owners of Shop 4 Less have shown the Anguillian community how innovative, motivated and hard –working they are. They have shown how business done in St. Martin is feasible in Anguilla. Since 2002, the level of quality of product has drastically increased and customers are very happy with the new line of goods sold at the store.

The tenacity and honesty of the owners of Shop 4 Less have contributed to meeting many with many businesspersons. One in particular is a businessman who was born in Guadeloupe and is the owner of seven department stores. He specialises in the beautification of the home with various decorative items, furniture, dinnerware, plastic ware, linen products and a follow-up on fashion except electronics and appliances. Today he represents over one hundred employees and seven stores in Guadeloupe, Martinique and St. Martin. He has over 300 containers coming in each year from China, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Turkey, Egypt, Italy, Germany, France, Poland, Brazil and the USA. He has been in the retail and wholesale business for over 25 years.

The result of that meeting has turned out to something very interesting and involving Anguilla. It is the idea of developing a concept of retail stores in the French and English islands: a simple “Caribbean Franchise” with a unique concept for the Caribbean market. The idea came up in Anguilla. The main focus is to create locally-owned stores with common lines of products, of media advertising with same colours and layout that all local and overseas clients will recognise at each location.

Even if the concept is not on stream yet, it is being discussed and worked on every day with different groups of investors. The name of every new store will be the same which is “CARAIBES IMPORT” throughout the Caribbean.

As a test market, the Shop 4 Less store in Anguilla started to distribute the new line of products since July 2007 and the results are fabulous with faster sales and a better recognition from customers. In that direction, the Shop 4 Less of Anguilla will definitely drop the name on November 16, 2007, for Caraibes Import Anguilla. The sign, logo, staff uniform, shopping bags and advertising are ready for the opening.

It is a new step for this local business, with a door open to the regional and international market. While the change was already planned, Carl and Magda are in the process of merging with a group of Anguillian business people for the purpose of promoting and establishing the franchise through the Caribbean. During this process, the management team will be expanded in order to further improve service and increase sales. Carl and Magda will perform the critical and important part of the mechanism of the franchise such as purchasing, setting up new stores, training new staff and managing “warehouses platforms” in the Caribbean. In addition, the Farrington Project, a 41,000-sq.ft warehouse, locally-owned, is one of the key players in the creation of the franchise and will serve as the first HUB centre for the Anguillian-based company.

Carl and Magda have wrapped the deal for the future store in St. Kitts, with a group of other Anguillans for the opening of the Caraibes Import St. Kitts. This new store is designed to the expectations of the future franchise and will distribute the “Caraibes Import products”. The focus of the CARAIBES IMPORT GROUP is to distribute exclusive lines of items, with a better quality and style than any other products sold locally. At this time, the main promoters of this venture are Anguillians based in Anguilla and St. Kitts.

This is really a Caribbean/Anguillian story, which will show how dynamic and visionary a group of people, in a tiny island, can work together, innovate together and decide together.

At this time, all the Christmas merchandise have not reached yet, but all are invited to come and discover the “new look” of Anguilla’s number one department store with the official re-opening date this Friday, November 16.
The new business hours for the Christmas season for the entire Eldorado Mall will now be 9.00 AM to 9.00 PM as from November 16 to December 24.

Carl and Magda are thankful to the Anguillian public for their patronage and will continue to surprise their customers all year long.

To be continued…

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