Straw vendors remain in limbo

Nearly 10 months after the initial shutdown of the Nassau Straw Market, vendors still have no idea when they may be able to return to work.

“It’s rough, for everybody. It’s rough,” said straw market vendor Brenda Ferguson.

Like many vendors, the straw market has played a major role in Ferguson’s life since she was a young girl.

“I’ve spent all my life there,” she said.

“The older people built the market.”

On March 23, the competent authority ordered the closure of all non-essential establishments and businesses, including the straw market.

Since that time, the straw market has remained closed — both for buyers and for vendors.

“In fact, all of our things are still locked up in the market,” Ferguson said.

“We wanted a time to go in and take the things out. We didn’t even have the privilege to take the things out. Everybody’s stall is locked down.”

Celestine Eneas, president of the Straw Market Advancement Association, also highlighted this major inconvenience.

“It’s been nine months going on 10 months and we haven’t been afforded the opportunity to go and check our goods and see what kind of condition they are in,” she said.

“You don’t even know if you have stuff to sell.”

Eneas explained how the current situation is mind boggling to vendors, leaving the market for all of this time and having no idea what they’ll meet upon their return.

“When I speak to vendors, when they call me as their leader, it’s very hard,” she said.

“We just want to know. We want to know something.

“A lot of them are ready to go back to work because they don’t know where their next meal is coming from.”

Eneas explained that while the last nine months have been very difficult for her, she can hardly imagine what it has been like for families with children still living at home.

“Lots of people are standing in food lines, trying to survive and doing whatever it takes, but it’s hard. They want to go back to work,” she said.

In July, the National Insurance Board (NIB) announced an extension to the NIB unemployment benefit for a period of 13 weeks.

Since the extension was announced on July 15, vendors say that the unemployment benefit has decreased to $100.

Reverend Esther Thompson, president of the Straw Business Persons Society, argued that the government could have made much better arrangements for market vendors.

“Come on now, we’re all Bahamians, we’re all taxpayers,” she said.

“Everybody else that has to stay home has been getting their full salary…

“Why should it be okay for vendors to only get $100?

“I don’t think it’s fair.”

Ferguson vehemently agreed with Thompson.

She told The Nassau Guardian how Thompson has always fought for the rights of her fellow straw market vendors.

“You have your commitments: the lights, the water bill, every bill— and you can’t make it off 100 dollars,” Ferguson said.

“How could you live like that? Could 100 dollars do anything for you?”

“And this is Christmas! They need to come up with more than 100 dollars.”

Thompson suggested that some type of balance must be created soon because, as it currently stands, vendors are not being treated fairly.

“Let’s be real about it, let’s live in reality,” Thompson said.

“As an entrepreneur, you’re supposed to be able to separate your personal expenses from your business expenses. As business persons, I feel like the government should make some provisions for us on the business side. Vendors are business owners — that’s the way that they make a living”.

Ferguson also highlighted her struggle as an entrepreneur during the pandemic.

“When you’re working for yourself, all you look to is the market,” she said.

“So, how are vendors going to pay their bills? How are we going to survive?”

Ferguson was able to narrow everything down to one reason why the straw market has consistently struggled over the years.

“You know the problem with the market?” she said.

“No one ever listens to the real straw vendors. They never choose the right person to talk about the market.”

Ferguson said that back when construction for the new straw market began, lifelong vendors — the people that created the straw market in the first place — were never listened to.

“When they were building that market, we told them it can’t work the way they were doing it. They were putting way too many people in the market,” she said.

“We had problems even before this plague came on. It’s too crowded in there.

“And a lot of people in there, they don’t even know straw. They go to the shop and buy these bags like they’re doing straw. They couldn’t tell you anything about straw.”

However, according to Ferguson, every time vendors try to speak out, their complaints always seem to fall on deaf ears.

“We have never had a fair share of the market,” she said.

“Then it’s always a political thing.”

Ferguson made it clear that it has never seemed to matter which party is in power when it comes to helping straw market vendors.

She also argued that if the government had simply listened to vendors’ complaints from a decade prior, COVID-19 would never have affected the Nassau Straw Market to this magnitude.

Her argument is this: If the straw market was not overly crowded in the first place — with as many vendors crammed into the space as humanly possible — the market may have been able to reopen quite some time ago. 

Reopening

When asked if she had any idea when the straw market may be permitted to reopen, Thompson posed a counter question.

“But who are they going to reopen to?”

Ferguson is on the same page as Thompson, saying that it will do no good to reopen the market at this time because there are no buyers to open the market to.

In addition to the lack of tourists currently visiting The Bahamas, Ferguson advised: “It’s not time to open the market. Do not even try to open the market with that many [vendors].”

Eneas said what really bothers her is how much is still left to the unknown. 

“We don’t know anything,” she said.

“By now, we should have some idea of when we are going back to work.

“Nobody is responsible for the pandemic, but it seems it ain’t going nowhere, so we need to know something.”

Eneas said that, although she has met recently with members of the COVID-19 Task Force at The Ministry of Health in addition to other members of the Straw Market Authority, conversations have shed minimal light on market vendors’ concerns. 

“They had a meeting with us, but they haven’t said one word about us getting back into that market to look at the condition of our goods, or when the market is going to be open.”

Ferguson put things plainly, pleading that the government “give us what we deserve”.

“We deserve more than this.” 

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