Craft market vendors suffer low sales

Craft vendors in Lucea, Hanover, are calling for their share of the tourism pie. The vendor say they are unable to get buyers due to visitors being taken to locations outside of the parish.

Delroy Brown, a craft vendor who has worked in the town centre for 30 years, said that Lucea is not being marketed as a viable tourist destination, which contributes to the ongoing problem.

"Them nuh market Lucea, they market Montego Bay and Negril. Up to last week we spoke to one of the tour drivers, and they said Lucea don't count. We're dying for business here," said Brown.

Lucea Mayor Sheridan Samuels said that the craft vendors need to organise a local chamber of commerce to better market the town.

"We called them to a meeting the other day and put it to them that they have to get a chamber of commerce together for Lucea, and we're putting plans in place to get it organised on their behalf. They can use this organisation to go out there and sell the town itself," said Samuels.

Meanwhile, the issue of declining business is not limited to craft vendors in Lucea. Persons like Millicent Campbell have seen a fall-off in their earnings.

Campbell, who hails from Chambers Pen in the parish, sells ground provisions, floor polish and kitchen utensils in the market.

"Mi inna the market from me young, young, young. I been here from the market open, a whole heap of years now; I was the second somebody to rent this stall,"," Campbell said.

"I don't sell on Saturdays, since I'm a Seventh-day Adventist. I sell Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, and on Thursday I go buy goods."

However, Campbell said that nowadays, business is not booming as it used to in her younger years. Indeed, a casual look inside the designated vending area showed how business is sorely lacking within the facility, as several stalls are currently unused.

Campbell blamed the decline in business on other sellers who do their vending on the sidewalk as opposed to inside the facility.

"When the market first opened, we were selling because the people were never out on the sidewalk.

"Nothing is going on because they not fighting to get the people in the market. It is a disgrace to know we're inside the market and they (other vendors) are outside making the money and we can't make a sale," Campbell complained.