The financial crunch San Fernando business owners face is becoming critical.
Some business owners are reporting an over 50 per cent decline in their sales over the past year.
But this decline did not start overnight. The growing popularity of online shopping, several new malls on the city’s outskirts, crime and trouble finding parking have all contributed.
In an interview with News 19 TT, one businessman traced the slowdown to the closure of Petrotrin in 2018.
The owner of Stay Fly clothing store on High Street, San Fernando, who asked to remain unnamed, said since the state-owned refinery shuttered its operations, the city has taken a turn for the worse.
“The place dead,” he said.
“You could count how many people passing in front of your store now.”
The businessman, who opened his business the same year the refinery closed, said the only thing that has kept him in business is the loyalty of his customers.
“It was alright until Petrotrin close down, I find things start to go downhill, with customers on the floor.”
He said the Covid-19 pandemic and the closure of businesses to stop the spread of the virus, only made the situation worse.
“That add in to the frustration with the customers coming in, it have no customers coming in, you see how the place is, watch how the place is in San Fernando.
“The only thing what good with me is I have a little clientele but walk-in customers? Pressure with the walk-in customers, if you watch in the store, you not seeing really nothing, but thank God I have little clientele that keeping me up.”
A short distance away, the owner of Suri’s High Fashion at Carlton Centre, had similar complaints.
“I need to make at least $500 to $600 here, whether you like it not. I have to make that to survive, so that will cover the rent; you not even talking bout paying staff. You must make $500 to $600 a day to cover the rent and somedays, you not even making that and that’s the harsh reality and the truth,” he said.
He said up until the end of 2025, he operated two storefronts- one inside Carlton Centre and another along High Street.
But slow sales forced him to close the second store. He also had to send home the people he employed.
He too opened his business in the city in 2018.
But unlike his counterpart, he blames retrenchment by the current administration for the decline in sales. In June 2025, the government announced the immediate closure of the Community-Based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (Cepep), citing massive corruption in the awarding of contracts. That move saw over 10,000 workers joining the breadline.
“The buying public is the people that get pay fortnightly, remember a lot of people lost their jobs, the Cepep workers, they were the ones who would come through the malls frequently.
“Now that non-existent, so we would feel it, cause they not purchasing.”
Describing his experience as a business owner in San Fernando as “strenuous”, he said his sales have taken a massive hit since April 2025, when the United National Congress won the general election and formed the new government.
“About 45 to maybe 55 per cent (decline). You barely getting back now, what you doing right now is basically turning over and barely turning over and hoping for the best.”
He said despite the slowdown in business, he has to pay rent.
“It’s not like the landlord or the owner of the building will say that he recognises that things not flowing right, they know that…but they don’t care about that, ‘If you don’t eat, pay me my rent,’ that’s just how it is.”
Street vendors are also feeling the pinch.
Charmaine Celestine tells News 19 TT she has been plying her trade on the streets of San Fernando for over 35 years.
Celestine said she was grateful that she had taken care of her major responsibilities years ago, as the slowdown in sales has hit many hard.
“Due to the set of other stores that open out, selling and always having sale, it decline vendors sale on High Street a lot.
“I reach a certain age now, I is 61, I wouldn’t say struggling because I done do everything I had to do, but I more trying to make ends meet,” Celestine said.
She said several major businesses have moved on from High Street and into nearby malls, pulling their customer base with them.
“It hardly have any more bars, restaurants, like the Fox burn down, that was one of the greatest bars on High Street. Plus all the stores like Shoe Locker and Sports & Games in Gulf (City Mall), so most people, they would go in the malls too.”
In Part Two of San Fernando: A city at a crossroads, we’ll tell what business owners are pinning their hopes for the revitalisation of the city and what the Greater San Fernando Area Chamber of Commerce makes of this decline.