MOBILE DEVICES are all the rage, as they are more powerful and capable of enabling either glory or notoriety on popular social media sites such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
With this in mind, those who sell and repair such devices should be doing good business. Street Beat spoke to officials of some stores in Bridgetown for this week’s edition.
Por-Tabe Repairs in McGregor House, The City, is the authorised dealer for many manufacturers as well as for Lime and Digicel. Retail manager Carl Alleyne said people were looking for the latest styles and the most powerful devices, so money was often not an object.
“Once a new phone comes on the market, price doesn’t matter,” he said. ‘People will want it and they are going to get it. As such, our Galaxy series is going well, despite costing anywhere from $399 to $1 799.”
Alleyne said the business had a good Christmas and was holding its own. He said, when it came to phone models, people tended to trade up rather than repair.
“Most people are opting to buy a new phone rather than have an old phone repaired, according to the model. If it is an older model phone, they may just decide to buy a new one instead,” he said.
Supervisor Nadine Andrews, who was in Wireless World’s Warrens branch when the team visited, told Street Beat she was seeing a change in the local phone market as people were opting for cheaper phones which still offered features.
“BLUs have taken over the market; they have the same operating system as the Samsungs but do not cost as much,” she said.
Andrews said cases were also big movers as people were seeking to protect their investments.
This trend was confirmed by the assistant store manager at Keisha’s Inc. in DaCosta’s Mall, The City, who revealed her name only as Tanisha.
“Cases are still selling,” she said. “The younger age group are more into accessories so a lot of parents buy the phones and their children buy the accessories. I find the older ones may use a case until it falls apart but young people like to match cases with their clothes. For Christmas, we found a lot of cases were bought as gifts, what with the many different styles.”
As for Pro Sales, Delair said people were more opting for Alcatel and Huawei phones as they were cheaper while still offering features. He also said people were not topping up their phones with as much money as before as people no longer had the amount of disposable income they once had. He also spoke of the difficulty in sourcing parts.
“It is not as easy as before, especially as we prefer to sell original parts which can be more expensive but guaranteed quality. Also, sometimes the parts may not match what is being offered locally and with cheaper phones, we sometimes can’t get parts at all,” he said.
One major environmental concern is the disposal of the batteries used in mobile devices. If they are disposed of improperly, they can poison underground water supplies or even cause fires. Alleyne said this was not a concern for Por-Tabe.
“We have a special bin at our warranty centre in Roebuck Street for the collection of used batteries. With the environmental concerns, manufacturers are very particular with those sorts of things so after a period of time, they come here to Barbados and take them back for disposal,” he said.
Wireless World does not have such a bin, but advises people on how to dispose of their used batteries.
“Usually Digicel in Haggatt Hall collects used batteries and we recommend people who are enquiring to go to them,” said Andrews.
Hashim Delair, the owner of Pro Sales, said it was time Barbados took a serious look at the issue.
“I think Barbados should look into a phone battery recycle centre where stores such as my own could have a bin and someone would collect them and dispose of them in a safe manner,” he said.
carlosatwell@nationnews.com