The Tribune

By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT

tsmith-cartwright@tribunemedia.net

WHILE there is still no date for the opening of the Straw Market, the association representing vendors has confirmed preliminary talks with the Straw Market Authority on health protocols for reopening have started.

However, Straw Market Association president, Rev Esther Thompson said opening the market has to be mutually agreed upon in order for both the Market Authority and the vendors to be satisfied.

The market has been closed since the start of the pandemic in March last year. Since then, vendors have expressed publicly that they cannot pay their bills and their lives have changed drastically.

Recently, the tourist attraction received a noticeable facelift having been painted with bright neon colours. Along with that, the Market Authority has also given notice to the vendors who owed a backlog of rental fees for their stalls. Those vendors will not be returning when the market reopens.

“We don’t have an opening date as yet,” Rev Thompson said yesterday. “We are having a conversation about dealing with the health side of things now. They (Straw Market Authority) don’t want all of the vendors to return so we are trying to work with them to see if we can get all the vendors to return one time.

“Judging from what we see so far, I don’t feel we will have an issue because a lot of vendors have been put out from the rent issue. So we should have enough space in there to accommodate all those who are left. They should have a good amount of vacant stalls so those who are there could be spread out.”

Asked if she was excited about the ship that has been in harbour this week, the association president said no, and offered an explanation as to why.

“No,” she said about optimism on the ship being in the harbour. “Those ships that are coming now, we must remember they are coming to ‘home port’.

“That’s not our market. Our market is cruise ships that come in to spend a day or however many hours. That’s our market. That is not happening as yet.”

The home porting to which Rev Thompson referred is when a ship uses a port/marine terminal as its home, regardless of its port of registry. This allows passengers to begin or terminate a cruise in the home port and positively impacts ground transportation and tours.

Cruise passengers may also fly into the island to board vessels.

“This means nothing to the straw vendors,” she continued. “Maybe it means something for the country and the taxi drivers and the hotels, but not the straw vendors.”

Having not worked for the past 15 months, Rev Thompson was asked how the straw vendors managed without income.

“They are not managing,” she said. “They are not managing at all, but what can we do? It’s simple, if that is their primary source of income taken away for over a year and the only assistance they get is the little $200 every two weeks from the government, that can tell you how rough it has been. They have mortgages, school fees and all that sort of stuff so they are in a dilemma.

“I don’t feel optimistic that the market will open soon. For us to want it to open it has to make sense to the vendors. Remember now once they open the market that’s rent the vendors will have to pay. If they are not making any money, then they are going out there to look to pay their bills. So when we decide to open the market, then we must agree that it has to make sense for the vendors.

“You cannot open the market just to say its opening. We are in talks now to try to accommodate the vendor. We don’t know as yet when we will open as they are now saying they have to go according to the health protocols. We are not that far in the conversation yet for us to even determine when we will open.”