Oil spill: Beach sales poised to suffer
Florida — The hottest-selling item in Valarie Unzens’ gift shop on Pensacola Beach these days is also the saddest.
It’s a small, empty glass bottle with a cork in the spout.
With a massive oil slick bearing down hard on the beach, it’s an item in high demand.
“People really do believe they won’t see the white sand beaches again,” said Unzens, co-manager of Geronimo’s Outpost. “They want a way to preserve the sand and remember it.”
Like so many Pensacola Beach, Perdido Key and Navarre Beach retailers, Unzens is bracing for the economic impact of the April 20 spill on these next three precious months of summer sales.
If they don’t make their sales quotas over the next 90 days, some shops, restaurants and hotels may not make it through the rest of 2010.
The cruel irony is the timing of the oil’s arrival — just as a number of beach businesses seemed to be coming back from the economic downturn of last year compounded by a cold winter.
