Vendors air grievances over Port Mourant market

However, the market as it is can only accommodate 679 vendors but there are over 850 vendors, Stabroek News understands.

There are problems with the places being given to the vendors to sell and several of them who sell provisions from their Canter trucks will have to leave their vehicle some 400 metres away and sell.

Vendors lining up yesterday for spots.

According to one vendor, Karen Ross, “I can’t sell inside the market because them not giving me enough space. Where I gon put a whole Canter load of goods…from here to there?” (indicating a two-metre space).

Another vendor, who didn’t want to give her name, said that she does not like the way the people from the market administration went about doing the distribution. “Some people get ah spot what they ask fah. So what mek me must accept dey,” pointing to a spot at the back of the market.  Meanwhile, although the market administration and the President had said that there will be no roadside vending, yesterday afternoon a regional official was facilitating the marking out of spots outside of the market.  These spots were being given to people to sell, but then commotion broke out since these very spots had been used by other vendors who had said in no uncertain terms that they wanted their spots returned if vending was  still going to be allowed outside of the market.

Marking vending spots outside the market yesterday.

Close to 100 vendors are without a place to sell and they said that they were told from the inception that the market was going to be a two-storey one that could accommodate over 1,000 vendors. But instead they were given a one-storey structure.

They said that “selling is awe daily bread. We don’t wok anywhere else. How we gon live?”  In the meantime, market administrators refused to make any comments saying that they cannot deal with that now.

Some citizens who frequent the market feel that it will be very good if the road in front of the market area can be cleared as  “it will take more than the police to do that.”