Pelican closure has ripple effect

PELICAN--Stores and businesses in and around Pelican are already feeling the effect of the Pelican closure.

A visit to some of them on Tuesday revealed a lack of customers and perishable stock still waiting to be sold long after it would normally be gone.

At Lord and Hunter's Shipwreck shop there was only one assistant instead of the usual two. She was cleaning off shelves and restacking stock. There was not a single customer during the time that our journalist was there. She said, "It is really bad at the moment, but I think it will sort out before too long. They don't need two assistants in the shop when it is this quiet. I know some of the other shops are having a bad time already. They have to throw out left over stuff at the end of the day because it was not sold."

Bob Dwarkasine, owner of Peli Deli, a small supermarket in the Pelican complex, said, "Well there are fourteen concessions in Pelican and we are all badly affected by the closure. We can see the effect straight away. It is like a ripple effect spreading out from here. It is a problem for the 180 workers, but that spreads out beyond them to people like us and then beyond us to the restaurants and bars in Simpson Bay. Of course when 500 plus rooms are closed that represents a considerable number of spending tourists.

Dwarkasine continued, "The one good thing seems to be that the new owners are cooperating with us and they have stated their intention to give us a rent reduction. We do not know how much yet, but if they do so then we must see that as a good thing to help us through the bad time. We shall hear tomorrow."

Sergio Rousseau, manager at Bon App�tit French Bakery, told The Daily Herald, "We are at least fifty per cent down on customers. We still have some customers, but now we have to start trying to judge differently how much stock we put into the premises each morning. It is very sad, but we hope that things will pick up again soon. The good thing is that we are well established here and people will still come to Pelican from elsewhere just to buy our bread and pastries. We all hope that the whole thing is resolved to everybody's benefit soon."

Source: http://www.thedailyherald.com/islands/1-islands-news/14030-pelican-closure-has-ripple-effect.html

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