Entrepreneurship and Local Culture

THE UNIQUENESS OF THE RUM SHOP AS an entrepreneurial venture in Barbados is embedded in the history and culture of that island.1 The origins of these shops were shaped by the sugarcane industry, English settlement, and congregation at what were then referred to as “tippling houses”. The strict stratification in plantation society resulted in the upper classes utilising tippling houses and a new space, the rum shop, being replicated for the masses. The rum shop is and has always been an enigmatic space. It is a perennial cultural institution in Barbados that is characterised by the sale of liquor, small-scale convenience items for households and, to a lesser extent, hardware, and usually food ready for consumption, such as chips and fish or pork chops. In contrast to bars, rum shops are known specifically for selling alcohol by the bottle (mini or flask), a nip, an eighth or a quarter, a pint or half-pint, or a shot. The physical characteristics of the rum shop, the decor and ambience, are also distinctive, with many rum shops being housed in simple rustic structures, featuring inside walls that function as bulletin boards with posters and announcements pasted over them, while the outside of the shop is branded by an alcohol supplier. Rum shops play a key role within the small and mediumsized sector of the local economy. This study recognises that entrepreneurship has a broad scope encompassing mindset, process, and venture creation; and for the purpose of this research, one of the views that we adopt in this article is that entrepreneurship is the creation of new economic activity either through new ventures or the exploiting of new opportunities in pursuit of business goals.2 There are several gaps in the literature about rum shops, with the little available focusing on them as cultural landmarks. In this article we attempt to examine the rum shop as an entrepreneurial model in the small retail sector.