While most of the stores in Hamilton remained closed yesterday, there was one surprising item that was flying off the shelves in the Phoenix Stores - sea sickness pills for passengers on the cruise ships.

The store opened as usual at 8 a.m. with most staff coming in for the day and sold huge quantities of batteries and torches.

George Grundmuller, president and chief executive officer of the stores, said: "The cruise ship passengers wiped out all our cans of nausea pills. So we have sold out of almost all of the sea sickness pills which is understandable. And our pharmacists took a great deal of time to give out advice to them on the precautions they could take if they were going out in choppy seas."

The Phoenix Stores in Hamilton and Collector's Hill opened as normal, but the stores in Paget, Woodbourne and Clarendon were hit by the outages and remained closed yesterday.

Another unusual boomlet in business was at Habanos, the only store on its block to be open on Front Street, which did a roaring trade in phone cards to visitors.

Store manager Charles Pitt said: "We have been busy selling phone cards to tourists who want to phone home, obviously because they are going to be delayed."

All the department stores remained closed but nine brave Front Street stores opened their doors for the locals and visitors looking for something to do.

There was some minor damage along Front Street, with the awning down at Ceclie's, a window smashed at Nautica and a drain pipe down outside Bluck's.

Reid Street on the other hand was filled with felled branches, but stores like the Music Box, Trends, Digital Cellular One and Stefanel joined the Phoenix in opening their doors.

But the closed-for-business Sunday feeling that hung over the city did not extend to the few stores open and gas stations open said it was like Good Friday for them when they are traditionally packed as no other stores were open.

E.R. Aubrey's, which has a history of weathering a storm and have sold gold and diamonds in the dark on occasion, were open for business.

Linda Gittings, the managing director and owner of the jewellery store said: "We are open, no matter what."

She said that she had calls from regulars yesterday morning who wanted to make sure she was opening before making the trip and had many tourists through her doors looking for stores that were open.

She said: "There is no reason not to be open. The tourists depend on us, as do the locals."

Along the street Wadson's was open and Colleen Lewis, a sales clerk, said they had quite a number of tourists through the doors. Ms Lewis said: "A lot of people who have come through said they were glad we were open."

Around the corner the Bermuda Book Store was filled with tourists buying books and post cards. Manager and owner Robert Zuill was behind the till as none of his staff had been able to come to work. He said: "We have no reason to close. There is a ship in and so far it has been busy."

The Wine Rack also saw brisk trade, with cruise ship passengers boosting trade for the day. Manager Albert Brewster said: "There was never any question of not opening, and I am glad I opened up as there are a lot of tourists here."

Also open on Front Street were Davidsons of Bermuda, Makin' Waves, Carole Holding, British Airways and Dollar Savers.