The blackouts are killing private trade in Cienfuegos

Cienfuegos/The merchants have been suffering for months, but the fall of the National Energy System (SEN) last Wednesday is being the coup de grace for the private sector in Cienfuegos. Among spoiled foods, asphyxiating premises for the heat and customers that move away from the dark streets, the crisis is aggravated.

Luis, owner of a small point of sale in the Iglesias cast, were misguided on Thursday the last hamburgers he kept. “I cost me more and more work to keep the products well refrigerated, because they don’t give us truce,” says the 46 -year -old man. His only alternative has been to take the merchandise to his mother -in -law’s house. “I am seriously thinking about putting the business at home, in the area of ​​the Pediatric Hospital where the light is leaving.”

The new fall of the SEN confirmed that it needs an immediate solution before the losses are irreparable. At the moment the blow for the pocket has been significant. Closures before time because at night the gloom wrap the entire block where it has its cafeteria and the empty refrigerators and with the doors open “to ventilate.”

Although it has two Freezersrefrigeration is useless in the face of electric cuts that exceed 20 hours a day. “People come to have a beer or soda to mitigate heat, but when I tell them that everything is hot, they go without consuming anything,” he laments. In the last month he tried to replace meats and drinks with jams, but he has not worked either. “When customers get used to an offer, it is not good to change it.

But finding a space in protected circuits, the only ones that maintain electricity although the rest of the city is off, it is almost impossible. Yolanda, who until a few days ago had her cafeteria on the Tirry road, has been walking around the maternal hospital for weeks. “Already all the portals that meet conditions are occupied,” he explains. “Those of us who cannot buy an electric plant are obliged to place ourselves in places that the Government protects them by giving them current. If we do not do so, we have to deliver the license. I affirm it, that the last quarter I barely had to pay the basics and make minimum investments.”

The search for a place in those areas has become an fierce race. If before the energy crisis the income was already expensive, now they shoot. “The owners are asking them to be paid in American dollars,” says Yolanda. “A moment ago I saw a portal of just six square meters and the owner asked me for 30 dollars. He said he is already occupied on some accounts who start tomorrow. I still have to go in front of the hospital guard body. I do not lose hope. Something will appear.”

Given the price increase, some choose to join. “My brother -in -law had his sale of meats on the beach and I sold jams near the university. The blackouts were killing us. We got a garage in the Dubroq cast, protected by the industrial zone,” says another entrepreneur. “We pay $ 400 a month, yes, but we share. The current is not a problem. Everyone attends to theirs and we are halfway with the rent.”

Not everyone, however, can move. Odalys, owner of the La Milagrosa cafeteria, clings to its small store near the Provincial Hospital. “I do not have the resources to move. I pay a lady who lives in a protected circuit to keep me products in her fridge.”

The value of the houses in the city now does not depend so much on the amount of square meters that it has or its constructive state, but on the location in an area where the blackouts are not so prolonged. The proximity to a hospital, a vital industry or an official installation changes the entire perspective.

The dream of many private business owners is to be able to transfer their premises to one of those privileged blocks.