The Puebla Association of Restaurants and Service Providers AC said that with these restaurant closures in the Historic Center of Puebla, 280 jobs have been lost.
Puebla, Pue. So far in 2024, 20 restaurants in the Historic Center of Puebla have closed and, with it, 280 jobs were lost, due to the fact that sales dropped due to continuous street closures, where there were works in progress or there was a police presence to prevent the installation of informal commerce.
The president of the Puebla Association of Restaurants and Service Providers AC (Apresac), Arturo Delgado Ramírez, said that the bankrupt businesses, of which eight were affiliated, had overcome the economic crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He explained that the closed businesses had been in service for 3 to 6 years, however, low sales did not allow them to continue paying rents of up to 50,000 pesos. Some of them had even been delayed for up to two months in their payments.
At least five of these businesses decided to reopen in other commercial areas, where they would pay less than half of the monthly payment they paid each month in the Historic Center, he added.
He regretted that the municipal authorities do not take into account the tenants when carrying out works and when they are being carried out, the deadlines are not met either.
In addition, he said, streets are closed to prevent the presence of street vendors, which inhibits the arrival of diners, a situation that the twenty restaurants mentioned could not bear due to low sales.
Taking restaurants into account
Delgado Ramírez considered it important that the restaurant sector and businesses be taken into account by the authorities, making it clear that they are not opposed to the works and operations, but rather to the way in which they act without thinking about the economic consequences to the detriment of the business owners.
“The Historic Center cannot have intermittent street closures for construction work, and if there are any, they must be carried out quickly, because businesses cannot afford to reduce their sales when they have to cover high rents,” he said.
He indicated that there are around 300 members in Apresac and he hopes that there will be no more business closures for the rest of this year.
Source: eleconomista
