Payless shoe store steps into Guyanese market; aims to provide world-class shopping experience

Payless is an internationally-recognised footwear company and as part of plans to expand across the Caribbean, the company opened a new outlet at the MovieTowne Mall, located at Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown.

This is the company’s first new outlet in the Caribbean region in six years. Importantly, though, Jerus Mohamed, the country Manager for the footwear company, said that the company has been seriously eyeing the Guyanese market since 2018.

In fact, he highlighted, “We really wanted to explore because we know that Guyana has a huge opportunity for big brand retailers and we really wanted to deliver a world-class shopping experience for the Guyanese people, particularly in shoes and accessories.”

It was expected that the outlet would open in 2020 but Mohamed, who also has oversight for the company’s operations in Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, said that the opening was delayed by the enduring COVID-19 pandemic.

But, on Wednesday, the 4,000 square feet retail store opened up. It might not be possible to do a ‘quick scan’ of all that the store offers since mountains of shoes, sneakers and even some socks and handbags would confront you.

At any given point, Mohamed highlighted that there will be 25,000 pairs of footwear that are in the store for customers to choose from.

And, for easy shopping, much of the store is organised by shoe size and not type. That means that if your foot size is eight inches, or even 13 inches, there is a particular lane that offers all the footwear options for your shoe size.

Additionally, the nine staff members- who are all Guyanese- have undergone crucial training to ensure that they can provide the level of service that one would expect from an international company.

“… we are giving you a world-class shopping experience when you walk in through those doors,” the manager posited.

Now that the first Guyanese location has been established, Mohamed highlighted that the company would also be exploring opening additional locations in Guyana and even expanding to neighbouring Suriname.