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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2022
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Price gouge warning: Fear Abaco’s ‘loyal visitors’ lost By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net ABACO’S Chamber of Commerce president yesterday appealed to businesses not to price gouge for fear it could drive away “the loyal visitor base” that has stuck with the island through its Dorian and COVID travails. Daphne DegregoryMiaoulis, speaking as Abaco and the wider Bahamas remember the victims of the devastating Category Five storm that struck exactly three years ago, urged the private sector not to exploit inflationary pressures and soaring costs to push their prices to “unreasonable” levels. She told Tribune Business she has received complaints from longstanding visitors, who have been coming to Abaco for decades, who were “outraged” at the prices
• Chamber chief receives ‘outraged’ complaints • Urges businesses against exploiting inflation • Post-Dorian revival picks up in past 6 months they were being charged. Mrs Degregory-Miaoulis said they were increasingly eating at home, or where they were staying, because “they will not tolerate” what is being levied by restaurants and other tourist-related amenities and attractions. Describing increased costs, driven by external inflation, as “a huge challenge” for Abaco’s recovery and “not something that we have any control over”, she
added: “I made an appeal to the business community, especially here in Abaco, not to use that as a reason for price gouging. “Everybody wants to recover their losses, but this is a time when Abaco needs to give impeccable customer service to everyone, local and foreign. We’ve all gone through, and are going through, difficult times and we have to be more compassionate towards one another and grateful for our visitors for
coming back to an island that has not recovered 100 percent, and does not off all the amenities they are accustomed to and would like to enjoy. “I’ve had complaints from visitors,” Mrs Degregory-Miaoulis continued. “They’re able to afford to pay the prices, but are outraged at them because they’re unreasonable. I’m not talking about every day visitors to the island; I’m talking about people who’ve been coming here every year for 20 years and who love Abaco. “But they’re buying and eating at home more often than they go out, and that’s because they feel the product they are getting is not up to standard, and the service and price is not what they will tolerate. We have to be really, really careful we don’t lose that loyal visitor base we have by price gouging.” No
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‘Slow death’ fears if spend cut too deep By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A SMALL business advocate yesterday voiced fears the sector will suffer “a slow death” if Bahamians cut back too much on spending after the Prime Minister’s inflation
warning, adding: “We don’t want to frighten people.” Mark A Turnquest, head of the fledgling 242 Small Business Association and Resource Centre, told Tribune Business that while his members “understand” why Philip Davis QC called for consumer caution they were concerned it may provoke
too sharp a reduction in purchases from Bahamianowned companies. Also a consultant to the sector, he warned that the first casualty of any spending slowdown would be employee salaries and, potentially, jobs if consumer demand and the
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MARK A TURNQUEST
‘Lost opportunity’ to plan Dorian revival By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net ABACO’S Chamber of Commerce president yesterday said the island had suffered “a lost opportunity” to properly plan its sustainable post-Dorian rebirth while warning that the current housing shortage is “stifling our growth”. Daphne DegregoryMiaoulis told Tribune Business that COVID-19’s eruption had been “catastrophic” for efforts to rebuild the island following the Category Five storm
as she argued that Abaco had missed the chance to properly masterplan Marsh Harbour’s resilient revival. “One of the sad things after Marsh Harbour was levelled is a master plan was not considered,” she said. “It should have been time for the business community and government representatives to come together with proper architects and town planning to really shape how we wanted to look instead of letting businesses operate from the side of a road, from a car
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BISX-listed fund still eyeing downtown parking solution • Property Fund ‘interested’ in Rodney Bain Building • Renews acquisition and $100m portfolio ambitions • Profits jump 45% as flagship’s occupancy ‘over 80%’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A BISX-listed fund yesterday declared its continuing interest in solving downtown Nassau’s parking woes by redeveloping the Registrar General’s former home as it renews ambitions to expand to a $100m property portfolio. Michael Anderson told Tribune Business that the Bahamas Property Fund
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MICHAEL ANDERSON
Fraud claim rejected over will drawn up by ex-DPM By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A SUPREME Court judge has rejected allegations that a will drawn up by an ex-deputy prime minister and his law firm on their client’s behalf was “fraudulent”. Justice Ian Winder, in one of the last verdicts he delivered before becoming chief justice, upheld “the validity of a will” prepared by Desmond Bannister and Commonwealth Law Advocates for Alicia
Maria Stockdale despite the claims and assertions made by her two sons. Barrington Smith, an accountant, and Leon Smith, an attorney by profession, blocked the grant of probate for their mother’s estate after she died in Florida on August 22, 2015. One of their sisters, Betty Smith-Forbes, had initially obtained the probate grant on December 15 that same year but this was recalled due to her brothers’
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