Amid reports of price gouging in some areas following the passage of Hurricane Melissa, residents in Bounty Hall, Trelawny say their local corner shops are providing an invaluable service keeping them fed and connected.

“Certain places increase [prices] but this shop I can still get a crackers for $100 and a bag juice for $50,” a patron of Spence’s Grocery in Bounty Hall told Observer Online.

“We get our phones charged and they don’t take anything from us,” he added.

Run by Darcel Spence, Spence’s Grocery was bustling with activity when Observer visited the community on Thursday. The owner was surrounded by phones connected to her generator as she separated stalks of escallion and thyme into smaller bundles for sale.

Spence told our news team that while there were small price changes to account for the generator which she now has to run constantly, there would be no price gouging under her watch.

“If I go somewhere and they add on $100 I wouldn’t buy it. Because we have to run the generator, if we put on a $20 people don’t complain but we don’t really go too high, you cannot do that.”

A patron purchases goods inside Spence’s Grocery in Bounty Hall, Trelawny on Thursday, November 13, 2025.

Operating since 1992, the establishment is the main grocery store in the rural community, which sits outside Falmouth, and Spence says she takes care of her customers just as they support her.

“We just have to be issuing food, you can’t kill them, their houses blow down and people come with their young babies— I borrow [money] and I have to lend people out of it.”

Spence says she is also working to provide variety where she can.

“Chicken is a problem, we can’t go any and anywhere to buy it so we go to Montego Bay so the people can get something to eat different from the [donated meals]— and they do appreciate it, I wouldn’t tell a lie.”

Just up the road from Spence’s Grocery is D William’s Shop, owned and operated by Donald Williams.

Williams lost the roof of his shop during Hurricane Melissa along with some perishable items but he too said he was committed to providing a safe haven for his neighbours.

Spence’s Grocery in Trelawny has been hailed as lifesaver by residents following the passage of Hurricane Melissa.

“That’s why I hang out because I get my little Dragon [beer] right here at its natural price,” a parton said, adding “In everything he tries to help out… when phones are dead, there is a little generator… so we are thankful for Donny.”

Williams told the Observer, “To be quite honest, I have my customers and I feel it for them… I couldn’t really add anything extra, some people we just give them things, everybody comes and we are just helping out.”

When the Observer queried the prices of certain basic items including flour, tissue, bread, sanitary napkins and canned meats and fish, the prices were in line with the going rate in parishes outside of the worst affected western end of the island.

Still, some residents told us that some shops and bars in the area had raised their prices since the hurricane but declined to identify them.

“Everybody frustrated, if you buy a bun and cheese and a Lucozade a $1,000 that,” one resident, who wished to remain anonymous complained.

Another resident chimed in: “Even though they [raise prices] it’s still our people, we don’t want to point them out.”