Rory
03-13-07, - 01:31 AM
http://www.thenassauguardian.com/bixex/314754351737991.php
By SAM SMITH, Guardian Staff Reporter
What began as a tiff between Straw Market vendors and a Bay Street wholesaler-turned-retailer is now a war.
It took Wendy Nixon of stall 74 only hours to get 195 straw vendors to add their names to a petition requesting "the removal of Mr (Louis) Rolle from the downtown Bay St area for the selling of crafts outside of the Straw Market," as stated on the petition.
The tiff started when Louis Rolle pitched a tent next to the site of the former market. He began selling at below-market-prices, the same novelty items he also wholesales to Straw Market vendors.
The tiff turned to war on Wednesday when Rolle closed his wholesale store to straw vendors and opened a second retail tent along Woodes Rogers Walk.
Nixon claims the little white tents are hitting vendors in their pocketbooks: Tour guides, cruise directors and taxi drivers routinely direct downtown shoppers to the "white tent" at the end of the street, and the ambling tourists routinely stop at Rolle's little white tent before wandering into the big white tent, she said.
"A lot of tourists are believing that's the Straw Market," Nixon said. "Tourists stop there and think they've already been to the Straw Market."
Nixon submitted the petition to Deputy Prime Minister Cynthia Pratt's office early yesterday morning; and by 10 a.m., Peter Deveaux Isaacs, deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of National Security, was at the market to assure petitioners Pratt would see it.
"We're aware of that concern that was expressed ... and the deputy prime minister is now aware," Isaacs said. "We are going to launch an investigation."
Yesterday morning, the Guardian attempted to contact Rolle at his wholesale store to afford him another opportunity to tell his side of the story, but he was not there. His telephone number is unlisted.
Isaacs said he hopes the vendors and Rolle, who owns the narrow strip of concrete on which the two tents sit, can figure out how to co-exist.
"Cooler heads need to prevail," he said. The 195 vendors feel Rolle should not be permitted to sell novelty items out of a tent because, Nixon said, shoppers often mistake the small white tent as part of the Straw Market.
A check at the business licensing office showed that Rolle retains all the requisite paperwork for both his wholesale and retail operations, and Sergeant Zonicle, head of the Straw Market police unit, said there's little he can do until the current licenses expire or the investigation reveals improper activity.
In the meantime, it's just competition, and the straw vendors don't like it.
While Rolle could not be contacted, the message Nixon wants to send is clear: "Everybody knows the Straw Market is in a tent. Let him leave the straw vendors alone."
By SAM SMITH, Guardian Staff Reporter
What began as a tiff between Straw Market vendors and a Bay Street wholesaler-turned-retailer is now a war.
It took Wendy Nixon of stall 74 only hours to get 195 straw vendors to add their names to a petition requesting "the removal of Mr (Louis) Rolle from the downtown Bay St area for the selling of crafts outside of the Straw Market," as stated on the petition.
The tiff started when Louis Rolle pitched a tent next to the site of the former market. He began selling at below-market-prices, the same novelty items he also wholesales to Straw Market vendors.
The tiff turned to war on Wednesday when Rolle closed his wholesale store to straw vendors and opened a second retail tent along Woodes Rogers Walk.
Nixon claims the little white tents are hitting vendors in their pocketbooks: Tour guides, cruise directors and taxi drivers routinely direct downtown shoppers to the "white tent" at the end of the street, and the ambling tourists routinely stop at Rolle's little white tent before wandering into the big white tent, she said.
"A lot of tourists are believing that's the Straw Market," Nixon said. "Tourists stop there and think they've already been to the Straw Market."
Nixon submitted the petition to Deputy Prime Minister Cynthia Pratt's office early yesterday morning; and by 10 a.m., Peter Deveaux Isaacs, deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of National Security, was at the market to assure petitioners Pratt would see it.
"We're aware of that concern that was expressed ... and the deputy prime minister is now aware," Isaacs said. "We are going to launch an investigation."
Yesterday morning, the Guardian attempted to contact Rolle at his wholesale store to afford him another opportunity to tell his side of the story, but he was not there. His telephone number is unlisted.
Isaacs said he hopes the vendors and Rolle, who owns the narrow strip of concrete on which the two tents sit, can figure out how to co-exist.
"Cooler heads need to prevail," he said. The 195 vendors feel Rolle should not be permitted to sell novelty items out of a tent because, Nixon said, shoppers often mistake the small white tent as part of the Straw Market.
A check at the business licensing office showed that Rolle retains all the requisite paperwork for both his wholesale and retail operations, and Sergeant Zonicle, head of the Straw Market police unit, said there's little he can do until the current licenses expire or the investigation reveals improper activity.
In the meantime, it's just competition, and the straw vendors don't like it.
While Rolle could not be contacted, the message Nixon wants to send is clear: "Everybody knows the Straw Market is in a tent. Let him leave the straw vendors alone."