By Hugh McLean

THIRTY three-years-old, Sean Gonsalves, who hails from Patentia, West Bank Demerara, worked for 12 years as a Supervisor on the Wales Sugar Estate to provide for himself and his family. After the sugar estate was closed down in 2018, Gonsalves was forced to resort to other means of income.

Gonsalves started off small with his Game Shop, which had one television and one console.
“It took some time to develop but every day there was a new development”, posited Gonsalves.

Today his game shop has amounted to 10 consoles and 10 televisions. He is an all-rounded person, who also does computer repairs, phone unlocking and also has a car wash.
Gonsalves has managed to keep these operations up and running for the past eight years. He also employs five youths in his day to day businesses.

He told the Pepper pot Magazine that he employs youths because he doesn’t want them to “wander” on the streets or get into trouble. Among these young people, he said, includes University of Guyana students who work so that they can make money for passage and meals.

He also does steam cleaning and buff and polish. He stated that over the weekends and holidays, he makes a higher profit than usual because when the children are out of school, they don’t have many recreational activities to turn to, so they come to his game shop a lot.

Although he has persons working for him, when the job gets tough, he also works to help them get it done faster. He wishes to cater for all ages and all types of people.
Gonsalves hopes to one day have everything that may satisfy his community in terms of recreational activities.

“I would rather have a game shop than a bar because people can get very reckless when they are under the influence of alcohol,” explained Gonsalves.

Gonsalves started the wash bay after five years of establishing the game shop as a means of earning extra income to provide for himself and his family.