With the unseasonably warm November days we’ve been experiencing this year, who the heck wants to be closed up inside of a crowded store while doing your holiday shopping? The Washington Post published a piece about the sidewalk vendors that line the streets of Harlem, though in smaller numbers over the years. Here is an excerpt:
For Bargains, Can’t Beat the Street
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 25, 2006; Page D01NEW YORK, Nov. 24 — The day after Thanksgiving, there’s one sure place to go in New York if you want to buy six-foot scarves, fake fur stoles, ski masks, bangles, bags, baubles, knishes, cashews, kebabs, posters, paintings, self-pu
blished novels, oils, incense, silk-screened shirts and hand-painted running shoes.
It’s the street.
There are no advertisements or coupons, but Friday there were vendors, often selling unique or New York-branded products, hoping to bargain their way into their own holiday rush.
When most Americans think of Black Friday, it’s of trawling the malls or outlets of big-box stores for bargains. In New York, many locals and visitors consider a good shopping trip for unique items to be a visit to a strip of tables in places like Harlem, Union Square or SoHo.
“It looks like it’s going to be a good day,” said Jean-Pierre Mohamed Perret, 37, on 125th Street amid his vials of scented oils, including Miami Glow, Kiss Me All Over, China Rain and Rivers of Honey.
He and other vendors said that while they do best from Memorial Day to Labor Day, Black Friday could be one of their strongest single sales days.
Sidewalk vendors have been legend in New York, going back hundreds of years. More than a century ago, for example, Italian and Jewish peddlers sold their wares from pushcarts on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Unlike those immigrants, whose carts propelled many of them into owning small businesses, today’s vendors barely get by, according to a recent report by the Urban Justice Center’s Street Vendor Project. The vendors have to deal with often-confusing regulations, arbitrary enforcement and, sometimes, heavy fines, said the report, based on interviews with more than 100 vendors.
About 12,000 vendors work in New York, with or without licenses, according to the report. The city awards 853 general-vending licenses and 3,000 food-vending licenses, not counting veterans, who have special rights to operate stands. The waiting list for non-veteran applicants is closed, according to the Web site for the city’s Consumer Affairs Department.
At the same time, vendors in the survey reported an average of 6.7 tickets a year for various vending violations, including not maintaining the proper distance from a curb. Fines can rise to as much as $1,000 for repeat offenders.
Added pressure, vendors say, comes from business-improvement districts, whose member stores lobby against small-fry competition on the sidewalks just outside their doors.
There was little talk yesterday of regulatory policy as the sun shone and vendors sold their wares. Michael Wells, who sells posters and paintings on 125th Street, made a handmade sign advertising Thanksgiving sales.
“A lot of people come to this area especially to see vendors. I figured I’d put a little extra discount on,” Wells said, adding that “I don’t negotiate when I have a sale price.”
On 125th Street, meanwhile, Leroy Campbell, 52, who works in development for Sony Pictures in Los Angeles, looked eagerly through a pile of books self-published by
Sidibe Ibrahima, who stood nearby. When Campbell returns to Harlem, where he grew up, he always visits the street vendors.
“It’s the freshest stuff for the urban community,” he said. “It sort of comes from the soul of America.”
Posted on November 27, 2006 by D. Bell