Illegal vendors depriving businesses of sale

Still defending the removal of vendors from the streets of Road Town, City Manager Janice Brathwaite-Edwards said another reason for the action is that the illegal vendors have been depriving established businesses of sale.

She said some of the vendors are known to set up shop in front of the established businesses and sell some of the same products that are sold inside the establishments.

Brathwaite-Edwards said the proprietors at Bobby’s supermarket are prime victims.

“That is not right. What is happening now is, you are depleting a man who has to pay electricity, water, lease and rent from actually making his dollar. They [vendors] can get into your premises, and customers buy their stuff outside,” she told BVI News Online.

The City Manager further stated that she does not want to stop vendors from making a living, but the vendors must be more considerate.

“We don’t want to take anybody out of business or out of making a bread. But, at the same time, you need to be mindful of the people that we have leased properties to, and that you are not on these people’s premises selling the same thing that they are selling.”

Brathwaite-Edwards, in the meantime, stated that the improper disposal of garbage is another major problem being posed by illegal vending. “The whole issue of when you finish selling you just walk away and you don’t clean up – it’s starting to get the city looking like a little dump, and I have a problem with that,” the City Manager further told BVI News Online.