Bottom Dalla is closing down

Another Belize City business is calling it quits and closing its doors. Today, Santiago Castillo Limited announced that, after years of operating in downtown Belize City, its’ Bottom Dalla Supermarket is closing at the end of the month. In a release sent to our newsroom, the company explained that for the last eighteen years, it has provided value for money and a pleasant shopping experience but can longer do so. The company says that due to “unfair competition, compounded with proposed changes in market conditions, which will exacerbate the current situation,” the store’s owners decided it was better to close and focus on their other businesses. The store was a fixture in the downtown area and was well known for its slogan “Stretch yuh dalla”. The business now joins others that have closed their doors in recent years due to various issues. Recently, Augusto Quan, another well-known business that operated downtown, was forced to cease operations. Last month, the President of the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Marcello Blake, spoke on the difficulty local businesses are facing amidst several changes in the business sector. 

Marcel Blake, President, Belize Cham-er of Commerce and Industry: “A lot of persons out there, the general public, don’t recognize that in fact businesses are under pressure. We’re under significant pressure to continue to operate and provide the services that we do. And in the case of the Augusto Quan, it’s unfortunate because as you rightly put, that is one of those staple names that have been there for many, many years. And so when you lose those, it’s really just a testament that businesses continue to struggle and it is difficult to look at it and see that in fact there is very little being done to help to create the environment for fair play and fair business to operate in this country. And so with that then we can anticipate that more of that type of closure could be on the horizon and putting the 15% cap on retail is another way of getting us to that point quicker than we would want to because it will put other businesses who as they’re saying the bread basket is what they’re looking at and if those are your volume items then if your business isn’t as nimble to survive on 15% markup at the retail end then what will occur you will eventually fall to the same demise of having to make that difficult decision to close.”

 Love News understands that the existing staff at Bottom Dalla will be transferred to other entities under the SanCas Group of Companies.