00:00Princess Town is located between San Fernando and Rio Claro, but easily rivals both as a main shopping centre for southerners every Christmas season.
00:10And with one week to go before Christmas Day, business owners and street vendors say despite a slow start, sales are increasing with an influx expected early next week.
00:21Not all that, but it's alright. Study, study. Slowly but surely. We're expecting a little pickup last minute, last three days.
00:29We have lots of Christmas items selling here. You have pyjamas, we have Christmas pyjamas, we have Christmas nighties, we have socks, a lot of Christmas socks.
00:38We're expecting sales to be good this year.
00:41In Princess Town, household items, clothing and plants are fast selling items.
00:48One of the plants that's doing really, really well this year, and it does well every year, but this year it's exceptional, is our poinsettias.
00:53We have many, many colours of poinsettias this year. We have the bright red, we have that fuchsia pink, we have white, we have yellow, we have variegated, and we have a very new addition to our collection this year, which is the salmon, not normally known.
01:05We also have a lot of chrysanthemums for the elderly. A lot of people are buying that as gifts for them as well. And it's doing tremendous here in Princess Town.
01:12Those we spoke with say there have been frequent police patrols and no reported incidents of theft or criminal activity hampering patrons.
01:22It's a safe place, and along with all the other establishments, we have put things in place in terms of security measures, along with the TTPS police and the municipal police.
01:33They are assisting, doing their routine checks, and yeah, things are great.
01:38On Thursday, we saw one vendor being cautioned about his store location.
01:42They told me I have to move now. They get a call from the authority on top. Nobody can sell here.
01:52I don't know why. They don't question them. I have to move.
01:56Speaking to TV6, an officer indicated the vendor was disrupting delivery trucks from safely offloading.
02:14No other vendor we spoke with complained about being restricted this Christmas period.
02:20There was not a resume for this last month, so we were grateful for that, so we should come out and sell.
02:26Chairman of the Princess Town Regional Corporation, Gori Rupnurain, met with businesses and vendors on Thursday and spoke with us during his walkthrough.
02:35I also want to be lenient to the vendors because from now to Christmas, they have their family they will want to take care of.
02:42So as the chairman of the corporation, I also want to make sure that we can also accommodate them somehow without breaking the rules at the same time.
02:50So far, when we speak to business people, they are saying it a bit slow still, but it's starting to pick up.
02:56So I believe by next week, from weekend to Christmas, it will be successful in Princess Town.
03:02Cindy Raguba, Tika Singh, TV6 News.
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