The Water Street Vendors Mall was quiet when Stabroek Business visited on Wednesday. Some of the vendors had left their stalls and drifted towards ‘The Commodore’, a snackette occupied by a dozen or so vendors of breakfasts and lunches and an assortment of other snacks.
From all appearances, the stallholders are waiting. They say they are waiting for the last two weeks or so to Christmas by which time, they believe, business will pick up in a big way. Meanwhile, they wait, some impatiently, preoccupied with the fact that their investments in building the neat little stalls that accommodate their goods involved the incurring of debts some of which are yet to be fully repaid.
In some cases the investments total over half a million dollars, significant sums for those among them who came to the Mall from the pavements. The monies in some cases have come from personal savings and in others from loans from relatives or from small business lending agencies like IPED. All of monies must either be replaced or repaid and Christmas is the premier commercial season of the year.
In some cases the effort has simply been too much. Some vendors, having invested in erecting their stalls, have simply never traded. The additional cost of stocking the stalls has simply been too much and a few of the stalls remain closed.
Samuel McIntyre is one of a group of engaging stallholders who was found lounging in ‘The Commodore’ on Wednesday. His stall, which offers clothing and shoes, is positioned close to the front of the Mall. McIntyre exudes an abiding confidence in the facility. It will, he says, “pick up,” though he concedes that “it will take time.” Most of the vendors have arrangements with wholesalers through which they acquire stock and the repayment terms mean that their stock must move.
But the vendors have learnt to count their blessings. The Mall is a far cry from the rigours of working the pavement, braving the elements and the constables while jousting with others of their kind. For some it is an investment in the future of their families. They have come to see themselves as small entrepreneurs rather than simply hustlers.
Roseanne is a member of the Committee of Management responsible for looking after the interests of the stallholders. She talks about the fierce pride which the vendors have in the facility. Relations between the stallholders and the council, she says, are not always good. The Mall needs more bins and the lighting promised by the council has not been forthcoming. The vendors all pay their own electricity bills. Roseanne wants the media to pay more attention to the Mall. “We need advertising,” she says, simultaneously asking that we let the public know that on Wednesdays she offers a half price deal “on toes and fingers.”
There were few people in the Arcade last Wednesday. From ‘The Commodore’ one could see the neat little rows of stalls, from end to end, their minders, mostly women, knitting or chatting, all of them willing the beginning of the biggest shopping season of the year. The neat rows of stalls, the organized assorting of stock, represents a miraculous transformation from the ‘zinc city’ of just a few years which flooded and attracted an army of mosquitoes whenever the rain fell, forcing the vendors to take refuge on the streets.
McIntyre returns to the issue of the welfare of the Mall. He believes that the vendors have held their own but that they could do with more support from the council. They want the mayor to visit the Mall and asking that he be assured that he is welcome. If and when he visits, however, he is probably likely to be bombarded with requests relating to the further upgrading of the facility. McIntyre says the occupants of the Mall are a family but concedes that sometimes there are “family differences”. What is clear, however, is that they have a keen sense of what is relevant to their welfare. McIntyre says that an offer by the council to provide security for the facility was turned down. Apparently, there are concerns as to whether losses will be compensated by the council. The vendors have recruited their own private security, an arrangement under which they have contracted one of the stallholders to take responsibility for security. Nothing motivates like vested interest.
Earlier this year the council engaged the vendors on the issue of rental increases. They resisted and the upshot is that the increases have been postponed until January next year when the rates will increase from $2,000 to $4,000 per month.
McIntyre also wanted to plug ‘The Commodore’. It is a huge expanse of covered concrete at the western extreme of the Mall that accommodates about a dozen snackettes and several chairs and tables. It resembles a public dining room and the handful of vendors who had assembled to talk with us wanted it to be known that tourists have been known to find their way to the Commodore. They boast that they can offer a fare as good as anything that the established urban cafeterias can.
