Roy, the son of my neighbors across the hall, was duly dispatched.
Roy had visited Guam and somewhere else in the Pacific; I think Samoa. He asked if I had heard of Larry Zuanich and Zee Enterprises and I had not. Roy was working with British International Investment, formerly the Colonial Development Corp. and had looked at investment in the tuna industry at the time. The CDC had a hefty amount for investment around the world, and Roy was a development analyst and country manager in his years with the CDC. I think Roy spent two weeks in Guam.
We would later buy a practically new dishwasher from a gentleman whose wife had died, and decided he no longer needed it. His son had worked with Deloitte & Touche in Guam. Back then, I had never heard of Deloitte & Touche either.
But there are files on both companies in our extensive archive of businesses, industries, people and places, and we have files stretching back to the 1960s.
I dare say there are people alive who remember Larry Zuanich and Zee Enterprises, and his role in the tuna industry at the time is undeniable. I hope you enjoyed the story on the tuna industry in Guam, and current plans. These days, the tuna industry has moved on and we have reported on the success of the industry in the Marshall Islands, and how the country has developed a relationship with Walmart for export.
More recently, my travels have taken me around Guam to various businesses with Bank of Guam’s Kin Cook and ASC Trust’s David John and the ASC team. The meetings are typically an off-the-record mutual briefing on the economy in Guam and the islands, and you will read the results in the upcoming May-June Guam Business Magazine, which features articles by both Kin and David and the magazine’s own analysis and economic survey.
With the closure of DFS at the end of March, I took heart in a Visa study I read at the end of last year. Visa reviewed “domestic cardholder activity in luxury shopping hotspots including Dubai, London, Paris, Singapore, and New York City,” and called the spending pattern complicated.
Visa said that luxury retail purchases are no longer just for the top 1%.
“With 300 million Gen Z and Gen Alpha consumers poised to enter the market and digital shopping reshaping how luxury goods are discovered and purchased, brands that embrace innovation and personalization can attract this expanding universe of luxury retail shoppers,” Visa said.
At Heathrow Airport in England, I have noticed a trend of luxury retailers to offer their goods at consumer-friendly prices with small product offerings, enabling more consumers to purchase their brands. And today’s tourist visitors to Guam and our residents are clearly more conscious of discretionary spending.
Maybe a lack of recognition of trends held DFS back. But there is a certain satisfaction in buying local, and I continue to do so. Congratulations to Hyatt on another successful HYmarket on March 31, which had something for visitors and residents alike (including me). mbj
— Maureen N. Maratita is the publisher at Glimpses Media. Glimpses Media includes the Marianas Business Journal, Guam Business Magazine, The Guam Guide, Wave 105.1 FM, Power98 and Route99.
