The Tribune

By Farah Johnson

CHRISTMAS vendors at RM Bailey Park say while sales remain slow they are hopeful gift purchases will increase as the holiday approaches.

Many of the retailers told The Tribune they are optimistic the Bahamian public will patronise their stalls despite the gradual decline in holiday shopping.

They also acknowledged the different challenges they believe have contributed to the decrease in toy and merchandise sales over the years.

Martha Wallace, one of the founding members of the RM Bailey Park Vendors Association, said that though sales “haven’t started moving as yet", she hopes that the upcoming weekend will “bring in a boom".

Speaking about some of the difficulties vendors face, Mrs Wallace made note of the association’s complicated relationship with the Bahamas Public Parks and Public Beaches Authority.

“When I started, the Ministry of Education dealt with us but now...it’s been transferred to Roads & Park and you have persons who go there and pay for the time they spend out here.”

Mrs Wallace explained that while these vendors are granted permission from the authority to sell on the park, many of them fail to abide by the association’s rules which were established to ensure that the vending process runs smoothly.

“We have no objections to persons who would want to come and sell, but we’d like them to follow the stipulations,” she said.

“When we pay for the porta-potty and the dumpster, they come and want to use it for free. Then you would have the trash built up after we’re gone from here, but it’s nothing to do with the association. It’s those persons to whom Road & Parks would have given an opportunity to come out here and just abuse the privilege and then all of us get the bad name.”

Mrs Wallace said moving forward, she hopes executives from the Public Parks and Public Beaches Authority and the RM Bailey Park Vendors Association can work together to address the “frictions” in the vendor registration process.

The veteran vendor also spoke about other factors she believed contributed to the slow sale season.

“We just had the hurricane and a lot of us are trying to assist other persons, so I think that’s the challenge this year mainly because you can see it’s really a bigger decline now than (in) previous years.”

Another vendor, who requested anonymity, also said Hurricane Dorian played a major role in the slow shopping season.

The toy retailer, who has been selling on the park for 18 years, told The Tribune that business was bad because the storm left a number of Bahamians “financially challenged".

They also asserted that the recent slump in sales is a worldwide phenomenon caused by the harsh economic climate.

“I’ve travelled to the US for the past 18 years every Thanksgiving and even in Walmart I’ve noticed it was the slowest season and purchasing time that I‘ve ever seen. So it may not just be Nassau, it may be a worldwide challenge. But like everything else, we just have to have faith and hope that everything goes well.”

And yet, there were vendors on RM Bailey Park who said they have not noticed a decline in patronage.

“We expect Bahamians to support us as the days go on and you know Bahamian people are last minute,” Christine Turnquest told the Tribune.

“As a matter of fact, people in general are last minute. Christmas just started for us and we just started to set up here so we really can’t say the season has declined,” she said.