Interviews and photos by David Papannah and Shamar Meusa
Joel Bancroft– Patient Need Pharmacy ‘Changes I will like to see lie in infrastructure and security. There are robberies happening around the market on persons. The roof needs to be improved and sanitation of the market needs to be improved also. The market at the front here don’t flood as it used to. They have done some work on the pavement outside and the flooding has eased out there.’
Zamad– Zamad’s Music Centre ‘We need an upgraded market, we need a nice air condition market that will attract people and allow them to shop in comfort. We need a market that is well-organised. We have been complaining to the different mayors but no one has listened. I have never seen any improvements. We have had breakages, leaking 
roof, we have been complaining but never saw any action taken. The flooding situation has eased because they did some work on the external drainage but within the market nothing. We will like to see the lighting in the market improved. We need to have a day where they will clean the entire market. The walkways need to be resurfaced as well. I think they should look at the opening hours as well. They should change the opening hours because when you come early people are not ready to buy but in the afternoon more people come to the market.’
Petrula Bowen– Clothing Vendor ‘I will like them to extend for an hour so that we can have sales. By time the public servants come off the market is already closed. We open 7am- 4pm, we don’t mind opening for an extra hour because it is a big setback right now. Especially when a holiday is around the corner. We also need better security in the market also.’
Daren Gordon– Meat Vendor ‘First of all we need to look at the hygiene in the market. As meat vendors we are dealing with meats and there is blood but when we clean up our stalls we don’t have proper drainage. Also we don’t have ready access to water which is something 
that needs to change. We have to fetch water from the corner and keep drums filled. Hygiene is key but there are a lot of rats and roaches and strays in the market. I will like to see them sanitise the market and spray pesticides to get rid of insects. They do clean the market but as soon as there is rain, the drains in the market overflow. It is clogged up. The market hours should be extended, in the afternoon people shop after work and with the market closed we lose business. Security needs to be beefed up in the market as well.’
Dale David– Meat Vendor ‘I will like to see the drainage in the market improve, I think it needs to be restructured because it is not able to drain the market effectively. We are paying revenue but we are not seeing where the revenue is going. I had to buy zincs and put up a second roof over my stall because the market roof is leaking so bad, my products and machines were getting wet. They need to close the market for a two days or so and spray the entire market thoroughly, we are willing to make that sacrifice because it is for our own health. I hope these issues can be addressed under the new Mayor.
Dr Roxanne Padmore– Carmen’s Grocery ‘There are a lot of issues in this market. The first you see when you are coming into market in the morning is vagrants. Seeing people taking showers, clothing hanging on the market, food boxes, people cooking, 
meat coming in and blood dripping all over the pavement, when you see something like that people don’t want to come in. We have to do our own clean up to get rid of cobwebs. There are a lot of leaks on the roof of the market. When the rain comes the market is always flooded these drains cannot take off the market (water). So it becomes a wet, damp and smelly market. I will like to see a restoration, I told the mayor when he walked through the market on Tuesday. I know it is a long list of things to get done but we can start with getting the pave clean and the drains. They get a lot of revenue from Bourda Market and I will like to see some of that money return to uplift the market.’
Jahmal Haniff– Grocery stall owner `Sanitation is a big issue in here, we have a huge mosquito problem in the market right now, you see some health workers when they come in the market would tell you that the place unsanitary, people coming in to shop and mosquito biting them. Also the vagrants outside the market that is driving the customers away. Nowadays people want to shop in comfort so if they see vagrants outside they wouldn’t want to come in, they rather go to a supermarket. The vagrants outside there it don’t look good, and then people coming and giving them food and they would throw the boxes and so right out there. I think they should get a space to take them and feed them and let them mess up that one place so it gon be easier to clean up. Parking is also another issue, if people can’t get parking space, they wouldn’t come in the market, they gon just drive on the outside and stop and shop right out there. The market need a facelift man, some cleaning and painting, what you have… try to make it look good. Cleanliness is a big issue. I think the market should shut down one day a week for cleaning, but other vendors wouldn’t think like me, just gotta look and see which day they don’t get much business in here and use that day plus if john public know that the market gon close down a certain day they gon make sure to buy their stuff the day before or the day after’.
Richard Taylor– clothing vendor `The market needs a lot of improvement, for instance 
around the market is very dirty, where you have the homeless surrounding the market also outside the market they’re living, the stench of the market around the market and in the market is very bad, where they urinating and defecating outside of the market and that could be a health hazard where you could talk about cholera and these other things, if you go around the market you will see. When we talking about the beautifying of the market could bring customers to the market, there is no beautification in the market cause if you look at all around the stores that is going up you gon see these big three-story and four-story grocery stores going up that is well air conditioned and accommodated to suit the customers. When you in the market is just like you out the market, when rain fall I got to take down all of my clothes and put it up, so much holes in the roof, the infrastructure of the market needs to be beautified, they need to clean up the market. They have security but not adequate security, one constable with a gun can’t do nothing by the time somebody holler thief here he can’t reach to the other end of the market. The market is not improving where customers are coming to the market, soon as you hit the market you get the stench of the market and those things distract, is just that they have some faithful customers that come and check you or the market price might be a little cheaper than the supermarkets so you know maybe like the poorer class people would come in to the market, but the people that have the money don’t come in to the market no more, they go to the supermarket and all that big stores. I hope the new mayor do something about the market cause you know the market is one of the Mayor and City Council biggest revenue earners’.
