Jordan’s

By Gercine Carter

Barbados has seen the demise of many prominent black businesses over the years, prompting the often expressed conclusion that black people are incapable of running successful businesses, but Audley Jordan has proven otherwise.

At age 87, the owner of the Jordan’s supermarket chain remains at the helm of the business for which his father laid the foundation.

The day after he received the insignia of “Pride of Barbados”, a National Honour bestowed in recognition of more than 60 years of outstanding contributions to the social and economic development of St James through entrepreneurship, philanthropy and community service, Jordan sat down with the Sunday Sun to share his story.

“My father started in business in 1930 selling wood and coals and later on he extended it to a full grocery store.”

At age five and not yet tall enough to see over the counter of his father’s shop at Fitts Village, Audley was measuring kerosine oil and assisting with “dispatching” goods. After he finished Rudder School (the Barbados Academy) at age 17, he worked in his father’s shop along with a brother who soon moved on. In 1955, Audley took over management, assuming full control when his ailing father died one year later at age 51.

‘Trusting’ the norm

Keeping the business afloat was a challenge for the young shopkeeper who was operating in an environment where “trusting” (credit) was the norm for working class customers who depended primarily on their wages from the sugar cane industry to pay their bills and support their families.

“In those days, you would trust the whole village. Some people could pay, some people could not and you were heavily dependent on the (sugar cane) crop. Sandy Lane Sugar Factory was the nearest employer of the people who shopped with us.”

The seasonality of the crop often meant a prolonged delay in payment of outstanding monies owed to the shop and in the words of the Bajan adage, “the sow went under the counter”.

“It meant that people trust from you, could not afford to pay and you were going bankrupt. You could not buy back goods for the shop . . . . A lot of people were really poor in those days and then there were a few, a small amount, five, ten per cent, who would refuse to pay.”

He was forced to resort to borrowing to keep the business running.

“I remember my grandmother had a son in England and he would send money back to her. I was able to borrow some money sometimes from her to buy goods and pay back on Sunday morning.”

The period of mass Barbadian immigration to England helped Fitts Village.

“People went to England in droves and they were able to send back money to support their families and then I used to get pay better and that was my upliftment from there on.”

Those were the days when sugar was sold at 11 cents per pound, flour at nine cents per pound and things “were cheap”, Jordan said, “but still I would say this day to me is still better than that day. People could barely buy food, but could still buy clothes and there are more things to buy now.”

He recalled back then a minister in the Grantley Adams administration received salaries in the vicinity of $600 per month while labourers working in road cleaning and maintenance were paid around six shillings per day or $7.92 per month. Village shops were the norm serving communities before the advent of the supermarket.

Jordan ventured out, purchasing 4 600 square feet of land on the seaside opposite his original shop, at the cost of $2 800.

“I remember I had only $2 200 in cash, I paid that and I was given 90 days to pay the next $600.”

He won that money with lottery tickets which he sold at his shop. As a self-employed businessman, credit was virtually inaccessible but Jordan did not allow that to be an obstacle to his progress. He managed to build a second shop on the land purchased.

As supermarkets were taking off in the late 1960s, the landscape began changing for the small shopkeeper.

“The shopkeeper had to buy goods from the merchants in Roebuck Street. We could not buy goods from the agents who brought in the goods, like DaCosta’s and Geddes Grant. They had to sell the provision merchants on Roebuck Street, like Harold Proverbs, S E Cole and we then had to buy from them.” He also observed that the advent of the supermarkets may have been the demise of those Roebuck Street businesses.

Bought land

In 1983, he purchased the land at Fitts Village on which the current Jordan supermarket now stands and in 1991 extended the supermarket to the adjacent property which he had acquired.

Jordan pointed out that his path to progress as a self-employed businessman was not without obstacles, as he was to discover when he attempted to borrow money from one of the leading Broad Street commercial banks to build his first house.

Jordan’s name is now boldly displayed on four strategically located supermarkets.

“In 1989, I bought Shamrock in Baxter’s Road; in 1993, I bought what was Elmer’s at the time in Speightstown, from Plantations Limited; I took over Ricks on Fairchild Street in 2006. I used to rent it first and I bought it eight years later.”

In a supermarket environment with fierce price competition, Jordan works hard to beat the odds.

“It’s a lot of competition and so we don’t have big markups and we have to try to get the best price for our customers,” Jordan said.

He also supports local farmers and suppliers wherever he can, arguing that home drums must beat first. He maintains the survival of the small supplier depends on the support given by Barbadians.

“I support a lot of the small farmers. We have the big players who import directly from the US and we small players cannot compete with them. But we can compete with the local goods and we have to support our own within reason.”

The days of going “from bed to shop, not knowing what Bridgetown or Speightstown looked like for months” are over for the octogenarian who acknowledged the success he has reaped in business deserves some “give back” in return.

Hence the recognition with the National Award for his philanthropy and community service. His alma mater, The Good Shepherd School and the nearby Church of the Good Shepherd are among the beneficiaries of his generosity.

“If the church asks for a donation, I give them. It goes a long way. I have bought uniforms for the schoolchildren costing about $40 000; people come to the shop and ask for support and I give them.”

His generosity reflects gratitude for the support he has been given in his business by the Fitts Village and neighbouring St James communities through the years.

To be honoured during the St James We Gatherin’ observance is a reward he accepts with grace.

Audley Jordan sharing the story of his decades of experience in the supermarket business.

Here,

he is wearing the insignia of the “Pride of Barbados” after being pinned by President The Most Honourable Dame Sandra Mason last Wednesday at State House.

(Picture by Reco Moore.)