Full Transcript: The Gleaner releases interview on MegaMart Montego Bay closure

I n response to online reports suggesting that The Gleaner’s front page story of November 20 headlined 'Mega Blow' incorrectly reported the permanent closure of the Montego Bay branch of MegaMart, the following is an unaltered transcript of the interview between Janet Silvera of The Gleaner and the Chief Operating Officer of MegaMart Sachin Gupte.

SILVERA: So, um, let me ask you, wouldn’t insurance have been able to help the store to remain open? After the damage?

GUPTE: No, insurance is a process…it is not about the insurance or anything, it’s the sheer volume and magnitude of the devastation. Because once we…insurance is the money part, right? But there is activity involved to get it back. The activity involves a lot of activity in terms of, it’s like a new project now. You have to clean up the place, get it ready to a stage where, you know, we will then start to think what we need to do better than what we have done all these years. Because if at the ending of having the same problem…remember, there are two rivers, nobody thought that we would be hit by a flood, right? During the hurricane.

SILVERA: Mmm-hmm.

GUPTE: It’s generally the wind and the rain that causes the maximum damage, but flood was something we never had, you know, planned or envisaged. So, um, it’s not (unintelligible) it’s not that simple, (unintelligible) into what we want to do, how we want to do. So all of this takes planning and execution. Because to get a simple set of people to clean up the place is taking up so much of time, because there is nobody to do work right now, in Montego Bay. Everybody is asking everybody to, you know, help out.

SILVERA: Wow.

GUPTE: So, so, it’s dire situation right now, I mean, I can tell you up front.

SILVERA: Mmm-hmm.

GUPTE: It’s not about money.

SILVERA: Mmm-hmm.

GUPTE: It’s about getting the right set of people to do the right thing.

SILVERA: Oh, Christ.

GUPTE: And then clean-up, and then the project, and/or if we decide to go that far.

SILVERA: So let me ask you…

GUPTE: There are many steps in between.

SILVERA: Let me ask you, how do you feel, though, about having to leave somewhere that you have been for 18 years?

GUPTE: Listen, this is, I don’t know what, because I don’t know if you know that we had a meeting with the staff…

SILVERA: Yes, I know you had a meeting. That’s how I heard about it, the staff have been talking about it.

GUPTE: Correct. So we had a very productive meeting where the agenda was to inform them of the plan, and then we had the grief counsellors, we had our pharmacist, our chief pharmacist, with the medical scan for the staff in case they need to check their cholesterol, blood pressure, blood work—I mean, diabetes, whatever, whatever, blood sugar. And then we also provided relief care, food, clothes. There was a lot of things attached so that we cushioned the blow for each staff that they would be (unintelligible)…because it’s not a simple, uh, it means a lot to every one of us, you know, emotionally. Because, uh, the store manager, for example, has been, uh, with us for more than 18, 20 years now. Imagine what trauma it would be for the store manager. I don’t know if you know him personally, Robert Wong.

SILVERA: Yes, I know Robert very well.

GUPTE: And Janice (unintelligible), those people have been there from inception.

SILVERA: Mmm-hmm.

GUPTE: Ms. (unintelligible) has been there from the day the store opened, I think so.

SILVERA: Yes, I think she was there from construction.

GUPTE: Exactly, exactly. So imagine, I mean, she couldn’t even talk to the people that day, she was so…you know, trauma. Robert had tears in his eyes, and, I had to just pull them together, you know, to keep things going, because, listen, you have to do what you have to do to make it easier for everyone, you know?

SILVERA: Yes.

GUPTE: That was my role.

SILVERA: I hear that some people were offered jobs in other, other, other MegaMart stores.

GUPTE: Correct. So we had store managers from Montego—sorry, from Portmore, and store managers from (unintelligible) as well, and a team member from Mandeville, so whoever is interested for a fresh assignment with us was given a chance to put down their names and phone numbers, so once we know when things settle down, we will see who, maximum amount of people who have applied back to us, we will see that if we can accommodate them in, in, in the similar role and/or different role as the case may be. So that is an option we have, and our staff are very glad with that opportunity, actually. In addition to that, there are many people (unintelligible) in the last one or two days who are going to open in sometime in and around Montego Bay, I mean, the supermarkets and small shops, so they have reached out to my—are you there?

SILVERA: Yeah, I’m here, I am listening to you.

GUPTE: Okay, okay, fine, okay. So they have reached out to us, and we have, we will be providing them with the names and phone numbers of people who might be needing jobs, you know? To be able to help our external friends, as well as internal friends, and let’s see where it leads us to.

SILVERA: Right.

GUPTE: It’s what I can say at the moment.

SILVERA: Okay. I understand that, um, they will be given their salaries for the month of, of, of November?

GUPTE: Correct, correct, correct, correct.

SILVERA: All of them?

GUPTE: Redundancy payout will start from December, and we will pay them (unintelligible) November, and that’s, that’s, pretty much it.

SILVERA: Pretty much what it, what it, what, pretty much what had happened. Let me ask you a question, how big was that store, um, Sachin, do you remember? Do you know how big the store was, or is, rather?

GUPTE: (unintelligible)

SILVERA: How big, how big is the store?

GUPTE: (unintelligible)

SILVERA: Pardon me?

GUPTE: Hello?

(call gets cut off)

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(call resumes)

SILVERA: I spoke to Gassan as well, so he knew we were gonna be talking. He sent me some photos and all of that already, of the inside of the store.

GUPTE: Okay.

SILVERA: The fact that you’re leaving Montego Bay, I must tell you that it hurts me.

GUPTE: You are telling me? My God, it was so, it’s such an emotional decision, you know? It’s not easy.

SILVERA: I know!

GUPTE: These things, it is so impactful for the people who are going to, you know, get affected.

SILVERA: Yes.

Gupte: And the stories, and you would have covered the stories, right? In those areas. My God.

SILVERA: Such is life, though.

GUPTE: (unintelligible)

SILVERA: So I understand that close to 200 people will be made redundant.

GUPTE: Uh, not 200; 165.

SILVERA: 165?

GUPTE: Yeah, yeah, not 200.

SILVERA: No, no, I said close to. I didn’t say 200.

GUPTE: Right.

SILVERA: 165. Many of them have worked with the company for, for, for, for over 10 years?

GUPTE: yes, man…(unintelligible) Because you know what? We, those who stayed back in retail, you know, retail is such an addictive, uh, line of business, you know. Those who liked retail…

SILVERA: Mmm-hmm.

GUPTE: …don’t move on anywhere else. Especially the older generation, those who have been with us for a long time. So in that sense, yes, you’re right. But what can we do, man?

SILVERA: Not much.

GUPTE: I am seeing all these other hotels, also, doing the same thing.

SILVERA: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

GUPTE: My God. So what…how is it going to turn around? This is a big question now.

SILVERA: I, I, I, I, I really wish I could answer that question. But one of the things that we have to do, I mean, one of the things we will have to do is to tell people to come to Jamaica, not, you know, come as, as, as, as goodwill. Do not expect the Jamaica that you probably know, but the Jamaica that you learned to love years ago. You know what I mean? Those are some of the, the campaigns we may have to run, to get—because tourism is such a big part of the GDP, you know?

GUPTE: Big part. Directly, it helps a lot of people, you know, just like retail used to help a lot of people, and indirectly as well.

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