A FEW of the former Stabroek Wharf vendors, who have completed relocating to the Stabroek Market Square, west of Parliament Building, are happy to be able to open their businesses in time for the Christmas season.

The vendors were initially expected to all open their stalls on December 15, however for varying reasons many of the stalls remain closed. Vanessa Christopher, who is operating a salon, was the first to open her doors for business. She did so as scheduled on December 15.
She suggested that perhaps many of the vendors were unable to open because they still had work to be done on their stalls, since a few of them started building later than expected.

“Opening in town for the Christmas I feel real good about it. Everybody was supposed to open on the 15th, but a lot of them ain’t finish painting, and so on. We finish building early so that we could’ve open on the 15th, maybe because of the late start the others ain’t come out,” Christopher noted.
Since opening she has been enjoying how the business has been going.
“From the 15 to now wasn’t bad,” Christopher said, when she spoke to Chronicle last Friday.

“Out here is a different experience and it’s nice, I feel good. It’s good because we’re getting a lot of new customers, we’re offering everything, not that we have a Christmas discount but naturally we have a low price,” she noted.

Following the continued deterioration of the Stabroek Market Wharf, the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) made the decision to allow the vendors to temporarily relocate to an area of the Stabroek Market Square.
Though M&CC was originally expected to build the stalls and rent them to the vendors, after spending $23 million to upgrade the area the MCC claimed they did not have enough money to build stalls, and it was agreed by the councilors that the vendors would be given permission to build their own stalls.

Fruit vendor, Rahim Husain, was one of the first vendors to begin building when the vendors first began construction on November 18. He says he was not aware of the December 15 opening date, however, he chose to come out and start selling last Friday because he has to make his living.
However, he believes there are a few things that still need to be looked at.
“I just come out hey today because business got to do. It wasn’t bad we have one and two obstacles, there’s some fence, so they [M&CC] have some opening [of the fence] to do, and on the southern part of the market the taxi they just driving into the entrance and affecting the people from traverse this way. So it got one and two things need to be done. I think [the] council they dragging they feet somewhere along the line,” Husain noted.
Aside from constructing their own stalls, the vendors were individually responsible for setting up electricity at their respective stalls. The council, however, was expected to take on the responsibility of providing security lights, taking care of the garbage collection and providing toilet facilities at the site. However, in this area Rahim said there is much to be done.

“They promise us security, light, water, even to the toilet facility which is not there as yet. You have to go across to Cevon’s which is costly and you still have to pay a rent. But I hope they can get it done for the New Year at least. I think most of the stall holders are willing to come out but just because [of the lack of] the security, facilities, and basic things,” Husain said.

Meanwhile, Christopher said the process of getting electricity was easily for her stall, notwithstanding the fact that the Guyana Power Light (GPL) came a few days after the date they originally promised to come.
“We had current on the wharf so it wasn’t really difficult. [GPL] transferred the same meter, was a easy transfer process just that it took a little long, but it wasn’t a hard process,” she shared.
Von Ambrose was at one of the stalls packing up produce on Friday. Ambose, who works along with one of the stall owners who vends fruits and other perishables, said they are waiting until next year to open their stall, as the owner currently has a stand on the street and will vend there until the new year. In the meantime, they have already began storing their produce at the stall which is already completed.
“This mo’ better than big market, back deh they break it down, they bun’ it down, out hey suh mo’ comfortable. The space alright. We [are] selling out at the back suh. We just storing it here,” he noted.

The dilapidated state of the wharf was further exacerbated when a fire, suspected to be arson, razed several other stalls leaving millions in losses last month.