A press release has been made by the San Pedro Liquor Licensing Board through the offices of the San Pedro Town Council. Over a two-year period from 2009 to 2011 there is a marked decline in the number of liquor licenses issued by the San Pedro Town Council from 186 to 159, a decrease of 27 licenses. The area showing a noticeable decrease is with publican special licenses, which are the regular bars that open to any and all patrons and where all liquors are consumed on premises.
And how exactly should this decrease be interpreted? Good news or bad news? It all depends on how you analyze the situation? Could it be the result of the world recession and the difficult economic times confronting Belize? Could it be that there is a decrease in the number of people with the hobby of drinking? LOL! Could it be that there is too much competition in that particular field of business and it has been oversaturated?
Remember that anything that goes up must come down? Can liquor establishments, especially publican general and publican specials knock themselves out of business? We have seen one or two discotheques knocked out of business. And so have we seen the closure of casinos, and restaurants.
This is good food for thought for all of us- citizens, entrepreneurs, businessmen, and local authorities. We should try not to over saturate any segment of the business sector for fear we may start competing too much with one another. This is something that the Trade License Committee should consider very carefully when approving trade licenses. Too much of one thing can be bad. Food for thought; it is never a bad idea to try to prevent instead of lament. So here are the stats provided to us in a press release by the Town council:
Press Release – San Pedro Town Council – January 25, 2011 – In the General Meeting of the San Pedro Liquor Licensing Board held on January 10 & 11, 2011 the following number of applications were approved.
Approvals
Night Club License – 2
Publican General License – 4
Publican Special Licenses – 75
Restaurant License – 20
Beer License – 19
Malt License – 8
Shop License – 23
New Liquor License
Publican’s Special – 1
Shop License – 1
Beer License – 2
Malt – 2
Restaurant – 2
On Hold License
Publican General License – 1
Publican Special License – 10
Two Licenses were suspended for 3 months
