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Bambis Supermarket – one of the oldest serving supermarkets in Addis Ababa– is on verge of shutting down its operations due to mounting frustrations caused by hard currency shortage and administrative hurdle.

Charalambos N. Tsimas (best known as Bambis), a Greek national and owner/manager of the supermarket, said that he has been continuously humiliated by government officials.

He told The Reporter of his frustrations which is compounded by the recent severe shortage of hard currency. He said, he has been waiting since March last year to get access to foreign currency for the importation of food stuffs which he provides mostly to his expatriate customer base. “We serve diplomatic communities and I can’t say I don’t have rice or table salt. It’s humiliating”.