Retailers yesterday said they were saddened by news that rival department store Trimingham?s was folding, but at least one businessman said the development must be seen as an opportunity.

Trimingham?s shock announcement last night that it was closing its doors 163 years after first opening as a dry goods store is a big blow for the Island?s retail sector. It means 220 staff are losing their jobs, as well as spelling the closure of neighbouring department store HA&E Smith?s, after Trimingham?s bought it out last year.

While some retailers who spoke with The Royal Gazette said they were saddened by the news, it was no secret how difficult it has become to compete against the prices of North American competitors.

If anything, they said the closure of the Island?s oldest department store should be a wake-up call to Government that retailers genuinely need the duty relief and concessions for refurbishments that have lobbied for in recent years.

Two retailers, who did not wish to be named, said that in years past Bermuda products were marked up to account for duty and shipping costs.

But in recent years, retailers have moved to absorb those costs themselves in order to offer pricing competitive with what residents and visitors could expect to pay for the same goods abroad.

Retailers said that slimmer margin had also been eaten away at by much higher power costs, prohibitive labour costs, new pension regulations, increased payroll taxes and duty levels much higher than those borne by North American retailers.

One retailer called on the PLP Government to make good on making the Island a duty-free destination as it promised in its first election platform.

However Chamber of Commerce president Charles Gosling called on retailers to see this as an opportunity to be set apart from North American retailers. ?We cannot have a business which is a replication of what you have in the US or Canada selling at higher prices. You really have to offer products that are unique to this part of the hemisphere. I think not only locals, but tourists, would want that.?

However, Gibbons Company managing director David Gibbons said the Trimingham?s development was ?obviously very unfortunate? and would not necessarily make things easier for his retail business.

?Bermuda needs a vibrant retail industry and them withdrawing takes away a significant part of that whole experience both for tourists and for locals, ? he said.

A.S. Cooper & Sons CEO Peter Cooper said: ?I see this as a great loss to Bermuda as far as a retail organisation is concerned, although they were a strong competitor of ours.?

He said the development showed the overall weakness of the local retail sector. ?On the local side we have no control of shopping abroad, or even over the Internet, but this shows what can happen,? he said adding that he felt the underlying initiative of the Chamber of Commerce?s Buy Bermuda campaign had really been to guard against a large loss of Bermudian jobs.

?Sales associates are a closed category as far as immigration is concerned,? Mr. Cooper said, adding that of the 220 jobs being lost at Trimingham?s most would be held by locals. ?Bermudians are the ones hurt the most,? he said.

But Mr. Gosling called on those retailers still standing to take a hard look at the future of the sector.

?I really think rather than look up and say the sky is falling, retailers in the multitude of types of businesses that Trimingham?s was involved in should see that, through their demise, there are tremendous opportunities opening up. Their competitors, as unsympathetic as this may sound, for the long-term well-being of the Island should be looking at this [development] as an opportunity. I think we should have sympathy for the Trimingham family and employees of Trimingham?s, but for Bermuda as a whole this should be looked at as an opportunity,? he concluded.