Let night when we told you about the closing of the Bottom Dalla grocery store, we noted that this is not the first legacy business that has closed due to financial constraints.
Augusto Quan shut down back in July, and Smiling Meats sold off to new ownership.
All three of these enterprises managed to survive through the 2020 pandemic but can no longer manage to keep their doors open. Why is that? We asked UDP party chairman Mike Peyrefitte and he jumped on on that one:
Michael Peyrefitte, UDP Chairman
"Its a sign of the times and even if you isolate Augusto Quan and Bottom Dalla, look at Smiling meats. Smiling Meats, there is no more PUP than Smiling. There is no bigger PUP than Smiling and he's telling you that when this government came to power there were expecting that things would get better than they were under covid and they actually worst, because of unfair competition, favouritism and just not an enabling environment for anybody to work in. There is the high cost of living, high cost of running an operation and these are big businesses that usually can absorb these shocks."
"So if these businesses cannot take these shocks, these blue chip businesses cannot accept these shocks then what about other hundreds of small businesses that have had to go out of business, because of the environment we in. It's a sign clearly of the times. Not even in covid did those 3 businesses closed down, but now they are realizing that this is not a government that provides an environment for which a business can thrive and so they have to close down."
