The long-awaited "Carmel" passed and did not touch us in the end. The heavy rains that we had at the weekend certainly can not be compared with the beast presented to us by meteorologists. Unfortunately, inevitably market movement, a breath before Christmas was affected. The only thing "Carmel" left behind are dissatisfied and complaining shopkeepers who lost the turnover of the year.
The general secretary of POVEK, Stefanos Koursaris, spoke to politis.com.cy about the effects he had on the market, characterizing as at least unfortunate the vertical statements of the meteorological department for the "Carmel" storm.
As he said, it is known that the Christmas period and especially the last week, the last weekend before the holidays is very important for the movement and stimulation of the market. The month of December covers 30% of the annual sales so it is a very important period for every shopkeeper.
"They killed the bazaar. Relevant announcements-exaggerations and incentives to consumers, to citizens to stay at home or visit only indoors, affected the market. By the same logic, why should anyone go and open their business, because they did not tell the entrepreneurs not to open their stores. It affected to a large extent, there are strong protests from shopkeepers from all over Cyprus. By the same token, you understand why the state is not proceeding with a total lockdown to deal effectively with the pandemic. "He thinks twice and thrice about the economic consequences."
With the same logic, added Mr. Koursaris, the meteorological department had to reconsider and give a formal announcement for the safety of the citizens for any extreme weather phenomena so that they themselves are covered. "They killed our bazaar in the middle of a very important period. From the facts, it seemed that they fell short of their forecasts, where the shopkeepers were waiting to work ".
On the other hand, supermarkets do not seem to have been affected. "In recent years, either with good or bad conditions, the movement starts from today and the following days because it is the mentality of the Cypriots to leave them at the last moment. So we consider the move in the coming days to be a given in terms of supermarkets.
politis.com.cy