Shop customers melt away

The heat in the pitch-dark shops was blatant: sales assistants kept fanning themselves, coffee machines were out of order, ice-creams melted and customers stayed firmly away.

A power cut due to a low-tension fault left shops at the lower end of Bisazza Street, Sliema, business-less the whole of yesterday morning.

This was the second time in a week that the shops were left in the lurch, after Enemalta on Monday addressed a power overload problem in the area.

“The coffee machine and the soft drinks machine were out of order, and so was the ice-cream freezer – all the ice-cream has melted, we’re going to throw it all away,” said Giorgio Café manager Christel Robaleaux. She saw no customers all morning.

Ms Robaleaux was the first to register the fault with Enemalta customer care after opening the coffee shop at 8.30 a.m.

“At the moment it’s pitch black and it’s boiling,” said Theresa Bartolo Parnis, director at Accesorize, speaking to The Times at noon.

“This is a major disadvantage to the business especially at this time of the year when we have so many tourists, but from what we have been told, Enemalta is doing their utmost to rectify the situation so I don’t want to slam them,” she said resignedly.

On Tuesday most of Bisazza Street suffered on-and-off power cuts from 11 a.m. to 8.30 p.m. due to works that they were not informed about.

Upon opening their shops yesterday, following Wednesday’s holiday, the shops at the lower end of Bisazza Street discovered that they had been hit once again.

According to an Enemalta spokesman, the fault was identified at about noon and took two hours to fix.

“It’s a low-tension fault so it’s very localised, only the cable that goes from the substation to the street in question was affected.”

Due to power overload, new lines were passed through early in the week to reinforce the system.

But then the old line failed and had to be replaced: which is why only the shops in the lower part of the street were hit, said the spokesman.

Marcus Lauri, director at Sisley, one of the shops hit by the power cut, described this as a “technical hitch”. He told The Times that his shop suffered on-and-off cuts all Tuesday. “Obviously it affects sales: people can’t even see the clothes in the shop, let alone go into the changing room, so it’s frustrating,” he said.

However, he was aware that Enemalta was carrying out works to fix the power problems once and for all.

“So we understand that these are just teething problems... It’s very clear this is a genuine case. We have to be patient,” he said.

Sharon Mizzi, a sales assistant at Monsoon, said potential customers were just walking out of the shops. “There is also the fact that when the power is off we have no security whatsoever.

“It’s very hot. I’m fanning my colleague at the till as I speak – she’s going to faint,” she said.