BRAVING the heat of the scorching sun, missing those sweet, earl- morning sleeps – even when it is raining – to sell newspapers day after day, month after month, year after year, has been the life of Joycelyn Benjamin for over 30 years.
She has not regretted choosing this very demanding career path, which includes no sick days, no holidays, no weekends off, because through this simple and honest means of earning, Benjamin was able to raise and educate her six children, who are all now responsible and educated adults.
Joycelyn Benjamin is one of the most popular and long-standing newspaper vendors in Mackenzie, Linden. She originally started her trade at Wismar Street, where she resides, on weekends as she had a full-time job at that time. She then realised that the extra income came in handy and employed her father to look over the newspaper business when she needed to work. After leaving her full-time job at Banks DIH, she started the trade full time.
Her office is a bench in front of the popular Benjie’s Pharmacy on Republic Avenue, where she interacts with hundreds of people daily. She said on a regular news day, she would sell about 200 of the four dailies, but on a ‘hot news day,’, she would sell about 350 newspapers. While the profit on each paper is very small, Joycelyn has devised a plan to allow her small earning to meet the demands of her family over the years. “I would throw box-hand and that is how I did it over the years to mind my children. My parents left a house for me and I was able to repair it and furnish it with everything I need to make me comfortable by selling papers and throwing box, so everything turned out fairly alright,” she said.
In describing a typical day in the life of a newspaper vendor, Joycelyn said that she would try to be out on the road by 07:15hrs to collect her papers from the carrier and to catch the early crop of customers, since more papers are sold in the morning hours. With the advent of technology and most persons now being able to access the news on their electronic devices, Joycelyn said she does not believe that this has affected sales but, in fact, to her, sales have increased. She said that her main customers are the older and middle-aged people. “I believe people are more conscious of the news and they want to know what is going on more now than before, because access to information is easier,” she reasoned.
In addition to selling newspapers, the mother of six would supplement her income by selling cheese straw and plantain chips and would use her free time between sales to knit, which is a long-time skill she acquired. “Yes, I find things to do to occupy my time. I would make my lil side dollar by doing my little embroidery. I don’t wait on one thing to get money,” she said.
Being a newspaper vendor for over 30 years, Joycelyn said that one benefit is that she was able to make lots of friends who would ‘give her a top-up’ once in a while when she least expects it. Joycelyn was recently awarded as a virtuous woman of Linden at a PNCR award ceremony, which was held under the patronage of Minister within the Ministry of Agriculture, Valerie Patterson- Yearwood.
