Canacona: With the government relaxing some of the restrictions, which were imposed during COVID-19 enforced lockdown, residents of Canacona at last are breathing easier after keeping themselves locked for little over than a month.
Most of the shops have pulled their shutters up after authorities last week allowed the opening of shops that are selling some of the non- essential goods.
While most of the shop owners in other towns of Goa opened their shops on Saturday, the local businessmen after a cautious approach opened their shop since Monday. They say, there is movement of private vehicles on the roads but the business is not even 1/4th of the usual.
While the shops selling essential items made brisk business; the other shops had to endure a long wait for the first footfall in their premises.
As keeping a distance from others has become a new normal post COVID-19 pandemic, most of the shops with limited space, are going to be find the going tough in coming days.
There are also fears that with the exception of a few who have the financial cushion, most will find it difficult to tide over the current situation.
The worst part is most of the shopkeepers in Canacona supply material on credit to the tourism related business operators and with COVID-19 shutting down all of the tourism related business in Canacona it is going to be next to impossible to recover the credit, say shopkeepers.
