Consumer Products, Wholesale and Retail Distribution
Retail trade and distribution of consumer products is one of the fastest developing and biggest sectors of Trinidad and Tobago’s economy. It includes the trade of consumables such as food, clothing and textiles, furniture and tobacco products.
According to the 2006 Review of the Economy, wholesale/retail trade, and restaurant and hotel service sectors employed roughly one in five people deemed employable. In fact, this industry attracted almost 20 per cent of the country’s labour force in that year.
Competition in the local retail market has been keen and the possibilities of extending the market are limited. This restriction has made it difficult for market players to attract clients. Consequently, these business owners have had to search for new means to increase their income. Many retail distributors said that they followed ads in newspapers and other media to check competitors’ sales activities, and that they watched general economic conditions to anticipate consumer...
