The Federación de Comerciantes Detallistas de la RD (Fecoderd), the largest association of small shop (colmado) owners demanded a stop to the blackouts. They said they refuse to pay for blackouts. Spokesman Gilberto Luna said that they are giving the private distributor companies two weeks to resolve the billing problems or they would tell their members to return their electricity counters and not pay their bills. They say they are losing business due to the blackouts, as they cannot sell refrigerated goods. The storeowners have been suffering from 10-14 hour blackouts a day.
