The owner of the Bay Superette, known to many in the community merely as Russel, has been robbed at gunpoint on five occasions since 2021 and even shot in the face and arm, insists that he is in Bluewater Bay to stay!
By nature, Russel is a shy man and is averse to having pictures of himself taken. “Even when I visited the Taj Mahal in India, I turned down all opportunities to be photographed”, he said.
Russel bought the superette in Claude Crescent 11 years ago. In his first nine years of ownership, he only had to deal with shoplifting and a night-time break-in. But that all started to change in 2021 when he was confronted by his first armed robbery. In 2022, he faced two such incidents and this year, another two. It was the last of these that ended with him being shot twice – once in the face and once in the arm. During that frightening experience one bullet entered via his neck and through his jaw, blasting out a number of his teeth.
After a couple of months of recovery, Russel was back serving his customers from behind the counter. Security has been beefed up with the installation of two security gates at the entrance to the shop. Nevertheless, the Echo asked Russel if these attacks had not made him consider moving to a safer area – or even leave the country.
“No”, he answered firmly. “My customers are my family. I have built this shop up over the past 11 years and enjoy living in Bluewater Bay. The residents in this community are very friendly and have supported me for many years. If I moved to another area in the city, I would have to start from scratch again. I have family in Portugal – and could move there – but Bluewater Bay is my home and I intend to stay here.”
Then after one of his trade-mark giggles, Russel did point out one of his bugbears. “Just because we are small, people think we are more expensive than the bigger supermarkets. I challenge them to check the prices of our chocolates, Twizzas, long-life milk and even cat food. Also, if a customer is a regular buyer of a particular product, we always try to stock the line, if requested. The shop is open seven days a week from half-past six in the morning until eight-thirty at night.”,
