Sales increased but profits fell..by 63%. Last year it was Carl's Jr. so what went wrong this year? And this quarter may be even more challenging with the large increas in fuel surcharge from BPL and the Zero rated bread basket items having to be prorated.

Again the problem is ‘what now? Persons no longer fear jail or worry about the stigma attached to it. So jail is no longer a deterrent for many people, especially young men. They make up their minds that they will do the crime anyway, even murder and all they have to do is spend the rest of their life in jail or hope the case never comes up and they get bail or get realeased. When did the Bahamas get to the point where being in jail is better than fighting the battle on the streets? What is society doing wrong? So you must now make jail harder or life better for the young people to keep them from going antisocial and turning to criminals.

And to reiterate two points. 1. Why didn't the government put the same qualifying and reporting requirements when it removed the duty off airplane and helicopter parts and off clothes washers and dryers?
2. The fact is that government was supposed to remove customs duties and stamp taxes off all imported items that they charged VAT on. VAT is supposed to be a replacement or alternative tax and not an additional tax. But they continue to collect both taxes and continue to suck billions out of the economy.. Yet the national debt is growing about a billion annually.. They blaming the web shops for destroying the economy, but it is the over taxation that has killed the economy dead...

Sadly the war on drugs is what created the need for the war on crime. Along with racial profiling in the US. Now Donald Trump has decided to reactivate both policing strategies. And as you can see there has already been at least 6 swoops on communities at night in search of drugs and drug dealers. And small amounts of marijuana is now legal in 60 percent of the US territories. Cocaine smuggling remains a multi trillion dollar industry in the US with the main points of entry now being New York and California. Here the biggest danger is the marijuana that is grown in the . The set that has been genetically altered and modified. It is more potent and more addictive.

@Dawes where did you get the info that stores didn’t want to be forced to reduce prices. The argument was that the price decrease would not be equal to the price cut, at least not at first, and as the legitimate stores are able to gain market share and take the market back from unlicensed and fly by night importers then they can reduce prices more.

If there could be any comfort when a heinous and violent crime, such as murder, even in a botched armed robbery, it that the victim was not targeted as a high ranking law enforcement officer, but was at the time a regular, normal citizen doing something as every day as picking his children up from school. And that sends out a clear and definite signal, that the Bahamas is not safe for Bahamians and that this year especially, it is not just thugs shooting down and killing each other. And YES, the country must now heed the prime minister's call to unite and wage war on crime in this country. But the question that really begs an answer urgently is the "what now?" After a criminal is caught, arrested, charged and sent to jail. For the lesser crimes he spends his time in jail and comes out, goes back into the same community and most likely will continue his life of crime until he is killed or does a crime serious enough to cause him life imprisonment. So essentially jail and all the other punishments that are now being used are not an effective deterrent to crime. And, in fact, when the prime minister sent out the decree to chase the killer of the ADC, even to the bounds of hell, he may have been doing him a favor to bring him back here and face lesser punishment than the torment of hell. And another thing the prime minister suggested that hit a lot of nerves was that of not allowing criminals to breed and have offspring. And even though that may seem farfetched and unusual, that was one of the motives for giving hardened criminals, rapists and killers especially, life imprisonment. So even if they were paroled they would be beyond the capabilities of fathering children. But what about going even beyond that. What if the country, yes, this Bahamas, was to stop breeding and naturing criminals? Think about it. Practically every murder that was committed this year, and most in years prior, were committed by Bahamians. And not old criminals who were living elsewhere and moved back to the Bahamas, but persons who were born and bred here. Some 18 and 19 and 20 1ns 21 and most under the age of 35. Who born and raised these murderers? Whose children are they? Is the propensity to kill in their seed at birth or was it the way they were raised? So is the prime minister on to something. Does the country now have to invest in parenting skills? Is there a need to form a national service and enroll unruly and at-risk young men to teach them discipline and conflict resolution. To allow them an escape route from the pressures of gangs and crime?

‘The average shopper in the Bahamas is Walmart people.’ You just hit the nail on the head. And that is why Michael Maura was trying to explain why prices in The Bahamas will not come down at the same amount of the tax break. Do you know Walmart owns of the factories that make the clothing they sell. The Sara Lee company that makes Hanes and Fruit of the Loom underwear. They own the company that also makes their ‘George and Martha’ label as well as ‘Faded Glory ‘. Also The Dickies you buy in Walmart is not the same quality you would buy in other stores. It is a lighter fabric and hence the label is different. And most of the electronics and appliances Walmart sells is refurbished. That is ok if you live in the US and can easily take it back but imagine shipping a 50 inch flat screen here and it only works for two weeks. Well when stores bring in items that are faulty they also have to take the loss on it. And in addition to the price on the items they also lose the freight, duty and VAT, which together sometimes exceeds the price of the items.

Does this mean that there would be a VAT hike shortly after, should the FNM win the next election? And when taxes are increased when there’s no real growth in the economy where does that extra tax revenue come from? Out of the pockets of the people who are paying the taxes! What initiatives has the government taken thus far to grow the economy? Or at least stimulate it? They have launched an assault of increasing taxes with no corresponding relief for consumers or businesses. What about the post office? The only thing happening at the proposed new site is weeds are ‘a growing wild.’ Come on. Why should the public have to wait so long for the replacement of an essential service. And the fourth fire at BPL in barely a week and no one arrested?

The PM should have waited for motive to be established before speaking so emotionally publicly

> john's arguments is not quite right
> because the folks who smuggle goods
> are in the business of sselling
> junglist clothing, and they hardly
> have overhead.

Prove your statement or say you lie. The shops in Lyfod Cay and near Old fort Bay closed because no one shope there anymore..They learned to find away around the rules too.