NO VENDING will be allowed outside Trimart Supermarket

Citing losses of over $100,000 a month, owners of the Bridge-town complex have made it clear they can no longer afford to allow vending outside of the property.

That was the clear message sent in a letter to Minister of Agriculture Haynesley Benn by one of the directors of NSR Limited, the company that owns the Trimart supermarket properties in Bridge Street, The City and at Haggall Hall, St Michael.

"We reserve our rights as the property owners at Bridge Street not to allow any vending, soliciting or loitering under the overhang of our building," wrote director Everick Eastmond.

He added: "No one or any Government department has any right to give licence to anyone or any business to operate on the sidewalk. We will pursue our rights through the law enforcement agencies of this country."

For several months, the supermarket owners have been urging Government to have the vendors removed from outside of the supermarket, with the issue reaching a head earlier this month when the police were called in to forcibly remove some of the licensed operators.

The supermarket management then relented on its tough stance and said they would allow only four vendors to operate on a month to month basis – until Government found alternative accommodation for the vegetable and fruit hawkers.

But in a telephone interview, Eastmond told the SUNDAY SUN that in the past week, the number of vendors had once again swollen.

"It is part of their culture. Government has provided the vendors with markets, but they are not using them. Instead, they encroach on the property which tenants are paying a lot of money to rent. This is not fair to our tenants," he said.

In the letter, the directors complained about the obstruction of the free flow of pedestrian traffic right outside the doors and also charged that the customers were "dissuaded" from shopping there because of a "significant amount of harrassment by vendors."

"Our tenant has already given up half the space rented because of the drop in customer traffic that amounts to around $112,000 per month in lost revenue to the property owners and $16,800 in loss of VAT Revenue to the Government," the letter stated.

Eastmond also made the point that the fortunes of the Bridge Street property were "intricately linked" to the Haggatt Hall business. In this regard, he said the two locations employed 600 workers, made $900,000 in VAT payments annually and a further $363 000 in land taxes.

"It is in this regard that we have to take this firm stand against any threat to destabilise our capability to meet the tremendous obligations we have to Government, to the hundreds of those employed, to the businesses that tenant these locations, to our financiers and to the almost 300 shareholders that we represent," Eastmond wrote.

Against this background, Eastmond said NSR Limited had no choice but to take this tough stance from Thursday and that not a single vendor would be allowed to remain.

"We don't want to take the bread out of anyone's mouth, but we must weigh that against the 600 workers employed by the two businesses and the rights of our tenants," Eastmond told the SUNDAY SUN.