There has been a no­tice­able slow­down in the num­ber of shop­pers and ac­tiv­i­ty in shop­ping ar­eas across down­town Port-of-Spain, ac­cord­ing to ven­dors and busi­nes­sown­ers in the cap­i­tal city.

De­spite this, mer­chants are op­ti­mistic that there will be a resur­gence in ac­tiv­i­ties by next week, when some peo­ple are ex­pect­ed to be paid their De­cem­ber salaries.

Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed Home­land Fur­nish­ings on Queen Janelle Com­mis­siong Street yes­ter­day, where sales­per­son Pauline Har­bour said she no­ticed the lack of ac­tiv­i­ty for the Christ­mas sea­son thus far. Har­bour said it was a sig­nif­i­cant drop in ac­tiv­i­ty com­pared to the same pe­ri­od last year.