Lawrence Trimingham?s earliest memories include tormenting the sales staff at the family store, Trimingham Brothers Ltd. when he was still knee-high to a grasshopper.

Some of the women who saw (and put up with) the naughty boy in their departments still work there and have been watching his progress since he joined the company in 1987 and his subsequent climb up to the top ( he has been president now for five years).

And as there is no doubt that Mr. Trimingham has retail in his blood, it seems fitting that he has just been elected to the chairman?s post at the Retail Division of the Chamber of Commerce.

This is an influential post where Mr. Trimingham will be the public face for all the diverse retailers who are members of the Chamber in Bermuda, from the smallest family store, to the large department stores, from the wholesalers to the supermarkets.

?When it comes to retail and the issues we face, it takes everybody?s input and shared effort,? said Mr. Trimingham who was elected to the post on Wednesday at the division?s annual general meeting.

?I think we are more unified than we have been in the past. We incorporate many different kinds of organisations ? some sell exclusively to tourists, some sell to both tourist and locals and some to just locals... and then there is the variety of products sold in retail.?

But while they are a diverse group, Mr. Trimingham said that they share common concerns that keeps them as a unified group. And it is this strength that makes the division such a powerful lobbying group, who are constantly after Government for concessions to help the sector which has been struggling for the past few years.

The sector has been buffeted by a series of events ? the advent of Internet shopping, the greater ease at travelling to the US and the decline in visitor numbers over the years.

Retailers had thought that with the election of the Progressive Labour Party they would be facing a new, brighter chapter as the PLP election platform contained a pledge for turning Bermuda into a Duty Free Shopping haven.

However, once in power, the Government realised that so much of its income came from duty, and Duty Free was going to be impossible to implement. The bold concept has been quietly swept under the carpet where it has stayed for the past few years.

But Mr. Trimingham is hopeful that, in his new post, he can resurrect the issue ? and push for a Duty Free label for the Island to attract extra visitors, in line with many Caribbean islands.

?I think it still has got a good cachet,? he said. ?It is something the folks in the visitor industry talk a lot about. I would have said 20 years ago, with our economy based on tourism, that it would not have been possible. But now we have a different base of international business, and the benefits of the scheme would outweigh the tax revenue.?

Higher on the group?s agenda, though, is payroll tax relief for some of the businesses, especially during the quiet winter months.

?The restaurants received a payroll tax relief and we feel that some of the retailers certainly, if not all, would benefit from this. Especially businesses that provide services for the tourists and depend on them for their business, ought to have some kind of payroll tax relief during the slow time between October and May. This would also mean that they are less likely to lay people off in the off-season.?

Another subject high on the division?s agenda this year will be the pedestrianisation of Reid Street. This idea has caused a great deal of controversy over the years, with retailers split on whether it is a good idea or not. But, according to Mr. Trimingham, there has been a swing towards most of the retailers in favour of the scheme - as long as more parking can be found in the city.

?We hope that pedestrianisation will be achieved sooner rather than later,? he said, adding that they were looking at extra parking that could be provided by digging under City Hall car park, or digging deeper at the proposed hotel site at the back of Par-la-Ville Park to provide multi-storey parking underground.

He said that following models in the US, shoppers wanted to take their cars to malls with free parking and shop there.

?We have in downtown Hamilton a great mall,? he said. ?We have great shops certainly, but we have to look at ways to improve it all the time and make it more current to the customer.?

But Mr. Trimingham said he was reluctant to put a date on when the public could hope to see Reid Street close off to traffic, but said he hoped it would not be years down the line and hoped to come up with a solution soon to see the project move forward.

Another hot topic for the division is the issue of opening on Sundays and public holidays. The group said it will continue to lobby Government to try to get the hours liberalised, and not just at Christmas, when trial openings have proved a big success.

?I think that what the customer wants, the customer will ultimately get, and if they want Sunday shopping and there are enough people out there that want it, it will happen,? said Mr. Trimingham.

Mr. Trimingham said he also hopes to work with the Government?s Department of Statistics to help the division get more meaningful data on what is happening in the sectors so they can help their own performance better.

Mr. Trimingham said that the division also wants to become involved in the Waterfront Development as he sees retail as a key to the success of any plan.

?It will be very good for tourism if it is done right,? he said.

Mr. Trimingham will hold the post of chair for a year and will have Somers Cooper, of Coopers department store, as his co-chair and right-hand man.