Weak Christmas - Slow sales, steep fees worry downtown vendors

Downtown Kingston, usually the beating heart of Jamaica's Christmas commerce, is struggling to regain its pulse this December.

What should be the busiest shopping period of the year has instead been muted by sluggish foot traffic, heavy storm losses, rising wholesale competition and a steep increase in vending fees. This has left many street vendors uncertain whether the season will bring profit or just pressure.

On Beckford Street, shoe vendor Bashment, has watched the season's energy decline over the years, but said this December feels especially hollow.

"Burn Christmas to the ashes to the grung," he declared. "It's a pagan system. People buy foolishness weh dem no have no use for, and when January come, them throw it out."

For him, the holiday has lost its meaning completely. "Give we independence. We shoulda have three independence fi the year, January, August and December... We no want no more Christmas."

Around him, the signs of decline were clear. Neatly stacked shoes untouched, vendors calling out to passers-by who barely slowed their pace. It made for an unusually subdued Beckford Street. Bashment said the shift began long before Melissa, but the hurricane's damage has pushed both sellers and buyers into survival mode.

"There was a time when downtown did a bloom," he said. "Since the storm blow, it get worse. And don't think is them people deh alone a feel it we feeling it too."

The streets also reflect another troubling trend. Vendors say they now outnumber customers.

"As you go along, it lose its sting. So the Christmas gwann... lose it grain. And worse, we just had a storm," said Bashment. "Christmas anno like one time. It weak."

On nearby Princess Street, veteran socks vendor Junie said the slowdown is tied not only to reduced buying power but also to what has been happening in the rural parishes where many of her customers live.

"Most of us who selling downtown are from the country," she told THE STAR. "The ones who have major damage from Melissa, it kinda make things slow."

The storm carved through rural Jamaica in late October, causing billions in damage to homes, farms and small businesses. With thousands displaced and household budgets redirected to repairs and essentials, vendors say the downturn in spending is unmistakable. But Junie also opined that relationships between wholesalers and street vendors, once built on mutual dependence, have deteriorated sharply.

"If them sell something for $1000, them give we for $500 and we could sell it back for $1000. Now them giving we for $480 and them selling the same thing for $460. So people rather buy from the wholesale," she said.

Another vendor lifted a box of men's shavers as proof of her frustration.

"Me buy this and still affi sell it fi $100. Meanwhile dem in deh a sell it fi $70-odd. If me sell it fi $150, nobody nah buy it. A $600 fi my fare fi come here and $600 fi go back home. We nah make no money."

Buyers also admit that Melissa has forced them to cut back. One mother, shopping for school socks, said her priorities shifted drastically after the storm.

"After Melissa mash up mi roof, mi affi fix house first," she said. "Christmas nice, but mi cyah spend big like one time. Mi buy only what mi need."

For many vendors, the pressure intensified this year with a sharp increase in vending fees, moving from $2,500 to $6,000 for a space.

"Six grand and a one likkle stall mi have deh so," one vendor remarked. Junie added, "A socks me sell. Me nuh sell $6000 from week."

"Some people who live a country and come sell a town, some a dem house gone. Where dem ago get $6000 fi go pay?" another woman asked.

Still, amid the financial strain, pockets of solidarity remain. Junie said she has been helping vendors who lost everything during the hurricane.

"Three quarter a who deh pan Princess Street, dem make up and send dung things all when we nuh know dem. Me see people cry eye water and it make me cry too."