Weekend curfews hurting St Thomas pan chicken vendors

Jerk chicken vendors in Yallahs, St Thomas, are describing the past few weekends as a disaster, as they have either had to shut down their pans by noon or not work at all.

The weekend lockdowns were ordered by the Government to help limit the movement of the public in order to stem spread of COVID-19. The economic slowdown in the usually fast-paced food spot was evident by the sluggish demeanour of the vendors who were either sitting around staring into space or just chatting away with each other.

"Curfew put mi way, way back because the things weh mi would have normally do on a weekend, financially mi can't get to do again. No money nah mek. The 12 p.m. on Saturday never make any sense to me at all because mi can't sell anything dem time deh, suh mi not even bother to come out," shared Devon 'Biff' Brown. Clad in his apron and mask, Brown told THE STAR that weekends are normally when pan chicken sells the most.

"Say for instance you'd sell 20 to 25 pieces the whole week ... during the weekend you might be able to double or triple that, so it's like you are depending on those two days to cover the entire week. So when we lose those two days it's like we've lost everything," he said. The new restrictions, as announced by Prime Minister Andrew Holness yesterday, will see the curfew starting at 4 p.m. on Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays.

Night we people come out

"That still too early because dem time deh pan chicken just start sell. Most time is in the night we people come out," Brown said. Another vendor expressed gratitude for the extended hours.

According to him, "This curfew thing has been a disaster. We not making any money. Normally pon Easter weekend a lot of people passing to go beach and river and stop here to get them chicken and pork ... whole heap of money we would have made. But I think with the new announcements we are better off by far because we never get none the other day, we will get some yah now."

Brown was not upbeat about the E-commerce National Delivery System (ENDS) possibly coming to the parish. It would allow the pan chicken vendors to take orders from customers and to operate during the curfew hours.

"ENDS will only work for certain people and establishments ... a passers-by buy our roadside chicken. Maybe the people who have dem big restaurant and dem things deh will be able to get in an order or two but as for us, we depend on passers-by. So as long as the movement stops, we food stop," Brown said. "I think the best thing to do is continue with the protocols that tell people to wear masks, sanitise and physical distance. When yu make the people work for couple of days and then when it reach weekend you give them a time to go shop, dem bundle up same way. So if anybody in that set of people weh a hurry up to get serve have the corona, it let loose right there suh. I don't see how it makes sense ... because a bundling we a try avoid."

According to Brown, who has been in the jerk business for more than 20 years, "This is the worse I ever see things. I see hard times before but never like this."