Mom and Pop businesses feeling pinched

NEW YORK, Oct. 1 (UPI) -- Mom and pop businesses around the United States report business is slow as the U.S. credit crisis has trickled down to Main Street.

Business owners say customers are spending less and complaining more, USA Today reported Wednesday.

Carlos Vinces, a barber in Los Angeles, said customers are asking for shorter haircuts to ensure they come in less often and spend less. Vinces' business has dwindled to $200 to $300 a day, he said.

"I'm facing no sales, no business, no nothing," said Benjamin Swift, who has laid off divers as his yacht-cleaning business has declined.

"As it gets tighter for them, it gets harder for them to spend money on something like this," he told the newspaper.

In Michigan, "people just don't have the money to drink anymore," said Sherry Orr, a bartender at the Texas Bar and Grill in Detroit.

In Atlanta, automobile dealer Steve Rayman said business is down 75 percent. Still, he still jokes, "I tell people it's slow in the morning and it tapers off by noon."

In New York, business has slowed for Mary Cleaver at her restaurant The Green Table.

"We're definitely feeling it. Catering is the indicator for the indicators," she said.