By Khadidja Ba
Local retail business owners in Agricola, East Bank Demerara have raised a NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) protest against a Chinese supermarket, citing impending challenges to their livelihoods as community support may wane and their businesses face closure. (NIMBY is a colloquialism, originating in the US, signifying one’s opposition to the locating of something considered undesirable in one’s neighbourhood.)
“We been here for years, the Chinese coming here will affect the mom-and-pop businesses,” one shop owner known as Brother Dennis said, reflecting the collective anxiety shared among the group. “People in this community could come to me and say, ‘I don’t have enough money,’ and I could help them out. They can’t do that with the Chinese,” he also told Stabroek News during a recent visit to the community.
He noted that the tight-knit relationships built within the community fostered an environment of support that larger businesses could not replicate.
