The businesses of Perico are going through consecutive months of declining sales, rising fixed costs, and closures. The Chamber of Merchants described weakened demand and revenue that is too unstable to plan investments. The information does not include a count of establishments that have ceased operating, so the scope of the phenomenon is expressed through sectoral testimonies and not a consolidated figure.
Juan Carlos Tolaba, president of the association, explained that two or three weak months force businesses to use savings to cover electricity, taxes and rent. When their own capital runs out, some merchants seek loans to pay accumulated debts instead of improving their businesses. In his assessment, that kind of borrowing leads toward closure or bankruptcy because it adds obligations without creating new sales capacity.
The crisis is felt with special intensity around the wholesale market. Although the area concentrates the circulation of people, its activity is very sensitive to the loss of purchasing power. Customers reduce quantities, prioritize essential products, and postpone purchases. This behavior can keep traffic in the streets without generating enough revenue to cover the monthly expenses of each establishment.
Instability also affects business decisions. A business that does not know the level of sales for the next month postpones investments, reduces inventory, and avoids new hiring. If costs continue to rise during that waiting period, the margin narrows even more. The closures reported by the Chamber thus appear as the final result of a prolonged sequence and not of a single sudden event.
The entity held meetings with banks and provincial government authorities to request greater flexibility in financing lines. It also works with Municipalidad de Perico and the Province on an intensive and free course aimed at merchants and employees. These actions can improve management tools and access to credit, but alone they do not guarantee an increase in customers.
Tolaba placed the structural solution in a sustained recovery of local demand. The next verifiable result will be whether financial measures offer usable conditions and if the following months stop the loss of business. Until then, the difference between signals must be maintained: there are closures and a continued decline, but there is no public statistic in this information that allows quantifying affected locations, lost employment, or accumulated debt.
