Election colours boosting fabric stores’ sales

ASHANTI LAWSON

STAR Writer

Light poles are dressed in orange scarves, fences wrapped in green, and cars are draped in makeshift curtains.

In Jamaica, election season looks less like a campaign and more like a fashion show featuring two colours, and fabric stores are the designers behind it. Across the island, fabric sellers say bolts of orange and green - the main colours of the People's National Party and Jamaica Labour Party, respectively - are moving faster than wedding lace or school-uniform plaid. And while both colours are in demand, one shade in particular is proving hard to keep in stock.

"The shocking orange keep on running out. 'Regular' orange done already, and every week we affi reorder," one downtown wholesaler told THE STAR.

At about $5,900 per roll, with each roll carrying 40 yards, customers are buying the cloth in bulk.

"People coming in and taking it roll by roll. We never see so much orange move yet," the wholesaler said.

At a downtown shop, the rush is relentless, trucks unloading bolt after bolt, only to see them disappear hours later. On one visit, THE STAR saw Leo, a party supporter in a green T-shirt, hoist an entire roll of green on his shoulder. "Mi a go dress up di whole lane before weekend," he said.

A few feet away, two elder sisters squabbled over the last stretch of shocking orange.

"Mi wah it fi headtie!" argued Jackie, while her sister, Dawn, insisted her verandah curtains came first. The store clerk solved it by splitting the yardage, each leaving satisfied, fabric clutched underarm.

At a well-known uptown fabric chain, however, the rush looks different. Customers are measured and precise, buying cuts rather than rolls.

"Yes, green and orange are selling, but on this side, people usually want 10 yards here, five yards there. I don't really see a demand for the entire roll," a staff member explained.

Most stores across the Corporate Area said demand started long before the election date was called. But once the date dropped, the frenzy grew.

"From early, people start buy up the colour," one wholesaler said. "As soon as the date call, it get worse, whole heap more rushing in."

The political fever has also collided with the traditional back-to-school season, when khaki, plaid and other uniform fabrics dominate sales.

"Normally, back-to-school [buying] alone keep us busy," the staff member at the fabric chain explained. "But now it [has] doubled, orange and green plus khaki and plaid. We don't see this kind of rush any other time of the year."

She added, "August to September always busy. But election just push it to another level. Truck after truck a come in, and as fast as we pack it out, people a buy it up."

For decades, fabric has been one of the cheapest and most visible markers of political loyalty in Jamaica. From flags and headwraps to banners strung across entire streets; a yard of cloth is often worth more than a handful of campaign flyers.

"Election time is the only season people nuh mind spending on fabric just to tie up pon post or hang up like curtain," said the worker. "After the votes done, yuh cya sell back dem colour."