Before 1983, O.T. was already supplying furniture to some of the largest stores in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and could have lived comfortably off the returns. But every time he saw the retail prices his products were being sold for, it left him deeply unsettled.
“I was trying to help my people, but when I looked at the markup they placed on my furniture, I realized my job wasn’t finished,” O.T. explained in an interview with SEARCHLIGHT newspaper. “I wasn’t helping people in the way I truly wanted to. So I decided to go directly to the consumer.”
He went on to explain that the gap between what he was paid and what customers ultimately paid didn’t sit right with him.
“When I compared my price to the final cost to the consumer, I knew I could do better,” he said. “So I made a decision to cut the merchant markup in half — I took one half and passed the other half on to the customer. That way, I earned a little more for my work, and the consumer paid a lot less. That was my main reason for entering the retail market.”
Mayers — who says the name “O.T.” stands for either “Overtime” or “On Time” — is originally from Lowmans Hill. Through hard work, discipline, and determination, he has become one of the country’s most productive and respected business figures. Today, he is the proprietor of Finishing & Furnishing – Arwe Store, along with a furniture factory located in Diamond.
Credit: Excerpt adapted from an interview published by SEARCHLIGHT Newspaper, St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Kingstown, St Vincent
Contact
E: finishing.furnishing@gmail.com
T: 784-457-2206
