Unlike, in previous years, when hundreds of Anguillians travelled in mass to St. Martin/St. Maarten for big shopping and spending sprees, the 2020 Christmas Season saw no such activity.
All the grocery shopping and spending were done in Anguilla, thus saving thousands of dollars in foreign exchange on the island.
The obvious reason was the continued closure of the seaports in Anguilla – and the neighbouring twin French and Dutch territories to the usual and regular ferryboat travel – due to the coronavirus. As a result, the Blowing Point Ferry Terminal, usually a beehive of activity with outgoing and incoming travellers, has been somewhat of a ghost town area, except for visitors departing or arriving on charter boats to and from Dutch St. Maarten.
The only real avenue for external shopping has been through online purchasing, using the postal delivery services. Consequently, the General Post Office in Anguilla was heavily patronised by many persons who stood daily in long lines from inside to outside the building.
Luckily, for these shoppers, the Post Office was extended some months ahead of Christmas to handle the influx and backlog of the online internet shopping items.
On the other hand, the National Commercial Bank of Anguilla, and to some extent, the Republic Bank, saw large milling throngs standing within the required social-distancing areas inside, as well as in clusters at the doorstep or under tents.
This time, however, it was not for withdrawals from personal accounts for shopping across the channel, but for spending in the supermarkets and stores of Anguilla. It is for this reason that many, if not all, the local entrepreneurs found their places of business unusually crowded and patronised.
On another hand, the Government lost a great deal of import duties and other customs fees which the shopping of items through the Post Office could not compensate for.
As bad and life-threatening as Covid 19 is, do we owe it any semblance of thanks that we were able to save a tremendous amount of hard-earned foreign exchange in Anguilla?
