Editorial - The demise of Times Store

TIMES STORE had proven up to now to be a very durable institution. It had been able to survive two World Wars, the Great Depression in the United States, which had its impact on trade and commerce on a global scale, several hurricanes and other disasters, man-made and natural.

Now, after operating for 103 years the store is to pull down its shutters for good at the end of June, a casualty of the economy. A company spokesman blamed the decision on a decline in trade from which the business had "suffered severely".

Times Store had been a remarkable survivor. It operated on King Street, specialising in stationery and general merchandise at a time when the street was known for many elegant stores. Nathan's, Issa's, The English Shop, and many others are but distant memories.

Yet, Times Store had been able to carry on, providing stationery and textbooks not just to the Corporate Area, but throughout the island. There must be very few persons in Jamaica of a certain vintage who did not, at some point in time, obtain a textbook from Times Store. For rural school teachers, the pilgrimage to purchase school books, chalk and other supplies was an essential and necessary part of the teaching experience.

For generations of Jamaican children, Christmas was not festive without a toy from the well stocked toy department, and if you worked downtown and did not have lunch at what must have been Jamaica's first cafeteria you were truly out of it.

We share the view that it will be difficult to imagine King Street without the store which proclaimed itself "the finest store in town". Perhaps there is some consolation in the fact that it will be allowed to die a dignified death, better that than to be snapped up at a bargain-basement price by some overseas interest.

Not many such institutions leave a legacy of nostalgia about good old days and ways of doing business in kindlier and gentler times.

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