Craft vendor turns to bag juice and cheese-trix for survival

As a craft vendor, Annie Brown expected that her living would be carved through selling items of that nature - but sluggish sales have instead crafted a different path.

Now, as she sits at her shop in the Falmouth Seaboard District Craft Market, much of her income comes from selling snacks and bag juice.

"The thing slow, slow; so mi just walk up and down and sell some cheese-trix and bag juice. Nothing nah gwaan right now," she said, explaining that her resources remain limited.

"I still can't buy much. I have to buy one bag of cheese-trix and one bag of bag juice. Mi still don't leave the shop. Mi walk here in the market and sell. I get my support in here," she added.

Brown said she cannot recall the last time she earned a steady income from her craft.

"Mi out here from early this morning (Wednesday) and mi nuh sell anything today, but there was no ship today. The Disney ship [is] to come next Wednesday," she said, noting that even on days when cruise ships dock in the town, sales remain slow. Brown closed her shop shortly after 3 p.m. that day, typically one of the busiest days in Falmouth.

"Wi nuh make no sales because the driver dem gone with them (tourists), bring dem gone a the Chukka, Bluehole, Dunn's River and then bring them back straight over the pier," she said.

But with the pier located just across the street, Brown, like many other vendors in the market, believes more needs to be done to support them.

"Them affi help wi get sales because nothing nah gwaan. Sometimes you have to bring lunch from your yard or walk with lunch money because nothing naa sell," she said, adding that she has a daughter who depends on her.

Brown theorised that the slow sales are as a result of tourists not exploring Falmouth, as well as the presence of craft markets on the pier that sell similar items.

"And they (tourists) don't come out because they feel the road is a danger to them. Some will take chance," she said as she secured her shop, fastening the cloth string she uses as a lock on the fabric walls.

However, another craft vendor told THE WEEKEND STAR that the struggle is also being felt by vendors inside the Falmouth Pier.

"Them a bawl same way, and a over deh so the guest them deh," she said, explaining that she has been in the craft industry for nearly four decades and made a living selling items on the streets. But in the confined space of the craft market, she said her sales are not enough to cover her monthly rent.

"We have to think about the rent and that a kill we. The rent is $8,500 and mi use to go up a Royalton go sell, but since the breeze blow (hurricane), that mash up," the vendor said.

"Mi nuh know wah happened to this market ya. We naa mek no money, not even when the ship come in. Only God deh a wi side when we sell a dollar ya so," she said.