Downtown vendors hope parade of bands revives sales after slow start

PE­TER CHRISTO­PHER

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

pe­ter.christo­pher

@guardian.co.tt

Ven­dors in down­town Port-of-Spain are hop­ing the se­nior pa­rade of bands, kick­ing off to­day, will lift sales af­ter a slow­er-than-ex­pect­ed start over the week­end.

Yes­ter­day, sev­er­al ven­dors re­port­ed low­er sales com­pared to pre­vi­ous years.

“It’s slow. Last year was much bet­ter. It’s still ear­ly, and we have Mon­day and Tues­day to see what hap­pens,” said Is­abelle Keane, who sells drinks, snacks, and T&T ban­danas at her stall on In­de­pen­dence Square South.

Paulette James, an­oth­er ven­dor at In­de­pen­dence Square, not­ed that sales dur­ing Kid­dies Car­ni­val on Sat­ur­day were on­ly about 50 per cent of her usu­al vol­ume.

“It wasn’t 100 per cent, but I’m hop­ing for the best to­day. Mon­days are gen­er­al­ly bet­ter for sales,” she said.

South Quay ven­dor Bet­ty Ann Jack­son ex­pressed op­ti­mism, not­ing that sales had im­proved com­pared to post-pan­dem­ic years. “Yes­ter­day, we had lots of chil­dren’s bands, and while it end­ed ear­ly, spec­ta­tors came by. We’re hop­ing to­day and to­mor­row will see the big bands draw the crowds back,” she said.

Yolan­da Par­sons of Caribbean Slushie Lab, with a booth op­po­site Cen­tral Bank, said sales had been pos­i­tive.

“This is our first time down­town. Nor­mal­ly we do events, so every­thing seems to be go­ing well. I’m look­ing for­ward to Mon­day and Tues­day,” she said.

Nicole Bap­tiste, a South Quay chow ven­dor, ex­pressed con­cern that the late start of the Kid­dies Car­ni­val down­town, due to the Break­fasts fete near Cen­tral Bank, could af­fect sales.

“The week­end is usu­al­ly busy for me, but this de­lay is a bit of a hin­drance,” she said.

Snow cone ven­dors had mixed ex­pe­ri­ences. Michael Welch re­port­ed sat­is­fac­to­ry re­turns from Sat­ur­day, while Ter­rence Phillip crit­i­cised new re­stric­tions re­lat­ed to Fla­va Vil­lage, which he said lim­it­ed the ac­tiv­i­ties of small ven­dors like snow cone men. “They’re elim­i­nat­ing the small ven­dors from the Sa­van­nah. Snow cone men on bikes can’t sell,” Phillip said.

De­spite con­cerns, Phillip not­ed that the down­town Kid­dies Car­ni­val ap­peared larg­er this year, though it moved faster than in pre­vi­ous years.