WESTERN BUREAU — Fontana Pharmacy’s Montego Bay Shopping Centre location may soon close its doors, according to managing director, Kevin O’Brien Chang.

“I am almost beginning to think of moving,” he told the Observer.

The pharmacy has been at the location since 1994 but he says the area has steadily deteriorated, and the on-going dualisation of the Howard Cooke Highway has not helped.

“If you look at the entrance to the shopping centre it’s terrible,” he said. “The road is bad when it’s dry and worse when it’s wet.”

There is a 30-foot gravel pit nearby, and huge potholes that have been steadily ignored as work continues on the Boulevard two yards away, he lamented.

“Customers have choices and I am selling convenience. This is inconvenient,” Chang said. “The bad road is affecting my business severely. Unless it is fixed then it is not viable.”

The increasing erection of zinc fences, hand cart men who have broken his pipes to wash cars as they try to shore up their income, have all contributed to the businessman’s frustration, causing him to give serious thought to selling “if the offer is right”.

“I am fed up,” he said. “It should be a nice area. You have the shopping centre, the tax office and Pier One nearby.”

Pier One is a popular entertainment spot.

According to Chang, if he wraps up operations, only the stock would be sold, not the name of the business.

In addition to the Baywest store, Fontana Pharmacy opened a branch at the Fairway Shopping Centre in Bogue, Montego Bay, in December 2001. It has another branch in Mandeville.