From groceries to tires, consumers are reluctant to buy in rural centres, and business owners are blaming the situation largely on the farm income crisis.

Derek Kuchinka, co-owner and manager of Midale Mechanical, says the reality of the farm crisis has hit his business' bottom line.

"The oil sector hasn't done anything extraordinary since the price dropped, either," said Kuchinka. "Now that prices are up we won't see anything happen until spring break-up. When your industry is dependent on agriculture and oil for activity, and when one sector is broke and the other is on hold, obviously it's going to be quiet."

The general garage, which focuses on auto and agricultural machinery repair as well as tires and minor welding, is usually slow in the winter, but "I think I would be very safe in saying sales are down from last year at this time," Kuchinka said.

Kuchinka's economic outlook isn't too positive.

"People are on the verge of losing farms that have been in the family for two to three generations. That doesn't put anyone in a good frame of mind," he said. "We've been in business since 1994. I would say this is probably our toughest year."

Lang Food Town owner Evelyn Hoffman says business is "not great" since many of her customers - namely farmers - don't have a lot of cash to spend.

While Hoffman carries a full line of groceries as well as movies and other items, some local shoppers are traveling to larger centres like Weyburn to buy these items - another possible factor for the slow business climate in Lang, admits Hoffman.

Aside from that, Hoffman says this time of year is normally slow.

"Winter to spring is slow here. Being such a small town you notice it. It's probably an average winter," she said.

Jerome Van De Sype, owner of J&M Tire and Service in Radville, says sales of tires to farmers are down, but sales to oil and trucking companies have made up the difference

"The farm sales are not a big item at this time of year until the frost comes out of the ground. But we usually do have some farm sales in December for tax purposes before year-end, and this year it was virtually zero."

Van De Sype says farm sales in the summer of 1999 were as good as the summer of 1998, but dropped off drastically after harvest.

"Going into spring, I personally think it's going be as good as last year. In our industry, when people don't have the money they aren't buying new equipment, and they're forced to put new tires on (old equipment) to keep going," he said.

At Coderre WH and Sons Construction Ltd. in Stoughton, owner Del Coderre says January and February have been slow.

"Last year at this time we were busy, just super busy - there were oilfield projects happening and other construction projects. But this year it's been deadly slow," he said.

But Coderre is optimistic for the spring and summer, when the main bulk of his customer base - rural municipalities - will be looking to put gravel on their roads.

He also expects oil patch activity to take off.

"I'm actually optimistic. I think this year will be a fairly good year. even though RMs may cut back because of the tax revolts. I'm thinking the oilfield is going to take off here soon," he said.