Still the tourism industry is not the only sector in Belize hurting from last week's chaos. By now we've all seen the stores in the downtown area which were mercilessly looted on Wednesday night. Right now they are in the hands of the insurance companies which is a story unto itself. But the stores which weren't looted are today feeling the aftershocks of last week's terror. On an average, business owners we spoke to in the downtown area of Belize City estimate that sales are down by as much as 60%. Boutiques we stopped by today all told us it has never been this bad. They believe fear is keeping their customers away.
Businessman #1: Last couple days it's unbelievable. We can't believe business was so dead and we are wondering how we can pay our bills. People are so afraid to come out on the street to spend. I don't know what is going on. So business is very slow man. Its really slow.
KS: How longer can you continue like this?
Businessman #1: Well we are just doing our best, we are struggling. We are trying our best to do our best but if this continues like this I don't think we are going to survive for long because we all depend on the local public to come on buy. We totally depend on the public so our business is very slow. I don't know what we will do. Last Friday and Saturday was worst than on a Sunday. Usually when we open on Sundays we make something but on Friday and Saturday it was really dead.
Businesswoman: Very slow, dead. We have no business. They are not buying. You barely see people in this area now and they are not buying right now.
Businessman #2: Its very very bad. People don't even want to come into the store. People are afraid to come out of their houses. But we opened the store for the people so if people don't want to come out then we will have to close. This Friday was very very bad. People are scared.
KS: Who do you blame?
Businessman #2: Nobody.The people who are protesting I am along with them and I am along with the government too.
Most stores are hoping business will increase this week because it's the end of the month payday, but with reports of a national shutdown, we've got to say: doesn't look good.
7NEWS produced for broadcast by News Director Jules Vasquez
Edited for the internet by Keith Swift
