Pennywise Plaza opens in La Romaine

“At no location, in any mall, can we get this amount of space. This store is actually 30,000 square feet. To have 30,000 square feet and the luxury of a shopping cart in a Pennywise store, it’s something that we want to (replicate in our other stores) as we go along.” There are 13 aisles in the store, a pharmacy, a lot more self-service displays and at the back of the store, booths dedicated to bigname make-up brands such as Sacha Cosmetics, Cover Girl and Maybelline.

Pennywise Plaza, located at the corner of La Bel Air Road and South Trunk Road, La Romaine, has two levels of underground parking in addition to surface-level parking.

Although the rest of the plaza is not yet open for business, Paladee said “within the next month or two,” tenants will open their stores. Among them will be a vegetarian restaurant.

This is the ninth Pennywise branch to be opened, but because the company closed its Gulf City Mall location last Saturday and replaced it with this one, La Romaine is technically the eighth Pennywise location in Trinidad. It employs an estimated 160 people.

In all, Pennywise employs about 850 people.

Speaking with reporters at the grand opening this past Monday, Paladee said there are no Tobago locations yet, “because we’re still trying to get our footprint correct here (Trinidad).” The grand opening was meant to happen in 2016 but was delayed by a year, Paladee revealed, “because we had to get the infrastructure ready and the planning, of course, for such a magnificent building, it takes time to get it right.” Asked how much it cost to build and outfit the plaza, Paladee declined to give a figure. Pressed by Business Day for an estimated total, the CEO replied, “A few millions but we are a very private business, so we’d rather keep that (cost) to ourselves.” Looking to the future, Paladee revealed that Pennywise plans to open “an indoor shopping mall with a lot of shops in Chaguanas in two to three years.” The mall will be located next to the MovieTowne side of Price Plaza, Chaguanas.

Even as the company plans further expansion, Paladee said Pennywise, like many other businesses, has been affected by the on-going limited supply of foreign exchange (forex).

“Forex is a situation we have to take it one day at a time. We have problems, just like everybody else, to get forex but with God in front, up to this stage, can say that we are OK. Sometimes we go in the red and we have to plead with our bankers to try to help us.” Pennywise Plaza has opened in the midst of a recession. Paladee credited the company’s ability to do so to “God’s grace.” “The secret to our success is the driving force behind our business, which is God. Our vision is to continue to do His work and take His guidance and move the company forward as he wishes...

There is no other reason we could put forward that this business is able to flourish (during recession).” Paladee added that because Pennywise caters for shoppers of all budgets, “the harder it gets, the more people are going to come here to save money and the better it gets, the more stuff that people need.”