’TWAS A WEEK before Christmas, and all through town, fruit and vegetable vendors were saying things looked brown.
The fabled Bajan last minute shopping rush has not hit food vendors in The City yet, as almost all of them reported poor sales.
However, they also said they expected next week to be better as the Christmas countdown continues.
“Everyone in town shopping so things slow right now. I’ve sold mostly green peas so far but people are mostly asking the prices and walking away,” said Patsy Felicien, who operates along Fairchild Street.
Another Fairchild Street vendor, who requested anonymity, expressed incredulity about the situation.
“Things rough, people are not buying food but are going for chairs, stoves and curtains. How can that work? You have to buy food!”
A vendor who identified herself only as Claudene said it was true people were concentrating on household items and were buying food from the supermarkets.
“Since Carifs are more popular, many people don’t walk with cash so they buy everything from the supermarket. Right now, nothing really selling except peas because they are short,” he said.
Joseph Selman said peas and guinea corn flour were the most popular items but he was expecting more sales by Wednesday.
The situation was bleak in the Probyn Street temporary market where vendors said they did not have many sales regardless of what time of the year it was.
“You have to go to the people who making all the money in the bus stand. We have been here seeing hell for five years,” one said.
In the Cheapside Barbados Association of Retailers, Vendors and Entrepreneurs market, vice-president Erskine Forde reported good sales in sorrel, lettuce, cucumbers and beans, but said things were still slow overall.
“We didn’t have as much food to sell as we would have liked because of the hurricane [then Tropical Storm Tomas] and what food we had was expensive because of it. Right now we are planting back and we would like Government’s assistance in that,” he said. (CA)
