Interviews and photos by Jannelle Williams
This week we asked vendors in the New Amsterdam Market to talk about issues of concern they might have about the market. Their comments follow:
Phillis Corlette – ‘My main concern is about the ‘madmen’ traversing the market. Sometimes the constables would see them and remove them from the market, but they don’t always have constables in front of the market to see when they coming in and send them away. And sometimes you see them begging the customers, you know, and the customers would be scared; and sometimes they just pop up on them and scare the customers off.’
Chandra – ‘I come late to the market, so nothing really bothers me. I come late, put out, sell, pack up and go home. One problem though, is that they take long to clean up the market. One Saturday, we come to sell and we noticed that a cow came inside the market and mess between the stalls. And when the auntie go upstairs and report it for them to clean up, they came till after midday to clean up. And you had to keep reporting it for them to come clean it up. This is not outside market…, this is inside the market. How could that be? How the cow reach in the market? We don’t have grass in here. It had to be carelessness at the front gate. If they had good security this wouldn’t have happened.’
Jacqueline – ‘I’m a market vendor at the New Amsterdam Market. The first thing, when you talk for your rights they try to chastise you. My stall was broken and entered about a year ago, and since then a lot of stalls were broken into in this market and nobody getting nothing back. You don’t get back anything. They promise to give you back something and on to now you ain’t get back nothing. I glad if the person who is in charge of the New Amsterdam Market or the Town Clerk could look into compensating us for our losses.’
Omo Adams – ‘I sell part time, at least two to three times a week, and I don’t see any problems with the market. It is clean and the council doing a reasonable job. I don’t see much problems with the market. So far I’m satisfied. It’s just that the people don’t come in the market as they used to since you have big supermarkets opening up all over the place. So business not like before. People don’t have to rush out from work anymore to come and buy in the market. They take their time, because everything in the market is selling in the supermarket. Otherwise to that, the market is good.’
Merlin Ramnarine – ‘Two vendors, look and see, they ready to pack and go outside. When they go outside the market we suffer inside here because you can’t do no business inside the market with people selling the same thing outside. Now is not even time to close up, but the constabulary already ring the bell. This happens every day. They close the gate and we have to put all our goods in the cupboard and lock up and go away. It affects my business. Every day a whole set of people line up right up to the gate and selling outside so we can’t do any business inside. When you talk to the constables, nothing happens, because the constables see when they are going to sell outside. It’s wrong, but they say nothing.
Shanta Jaigobin – ‘Market bad; business very bad. In fact, whole week, whole month no business. No business all month because everybody on the road selling so nobody coming in the market to buy. People not coming in the market.’
Marcellina Sandy – ‘Everything ok for me. The vendors looking for 100% profit, I looking for 5% profit so business is good for me. Better security is needed but I don’t go against the constabulary. I make do and move on. I don’t let anything bother me.’
Savitre Suknanan – ‘Market alright in a kind of way: today it bright, tomorrow it bad. It does fluctuate. Out of crop season affects us. When cane cut, the market bright and people shop, but when it’s out of crop, the market dead, dead.’
Christopher Samuels – ‘The management of the market needs to improve; it kind of good in certain ways, but in other ways it’s unfair. Management kind of biased when it comes to allowing persons to sell outside the market. Some people get certain privileges and others don’t. They are scores of people on the roadside selling, and the market vendors are restricted to selling a small portion just outside the market when it is closed and you cannot ply your trade on the road shoulders like others. They fighting you down and you still got to pay a fee and all of that. That’s basically my problem and I think they should come up with a solution for it.’
Claudette Blades – ‘Business very slow. It’s the out of crop that cause it. But you get accustom to it cause is years I selling in the market. As for the security, the gate is always lock so I don’t know how people does get to break in the market and steal people stuff. But they need to look into that. We need more security in the market, more people in the building. A constable would be in the front and one in the back, but probably they need to place one inside the market for added protection. Aside from better security, everything else alright. The place is clean and so, so no worries.’
