LET’S FACE REALITY

Let’s face reality, one of capitalism’s fundamental characteristics is its inexorable drive for accumulation leading to the expansion of its businesses and expansion generally. One of the effects of that expansion is the consumption of smaller businesses or bankrupting them out of existence. Development in Guyana, slow though it was, saw the slow strangulation of cake shops and groceries. Cake shops have completely disappeared in developed areas. Groceries are being replaced by supermarkets.  Small supermarkets are now giving way to larger supermarkets. While groceries and general stores still exist outside the city, and some have survived by selling alcohol, and their survival may persist for some time yet, the writing is on the wall. Unless they further innovate by converting themselves into modern, small, supermarkets, for their small communities with a wider range of product to meet the growing demands of their customers, they are not going to survive. The development of the oil economy has, and will continue, to speed up this process.

There is the issue of vendors. The case of the supermarket in Agricola by ‘Chinese’ nationals, their ethnicity identified for whatever reason, in a building used by vendors to sell their goods, is creating an issue because the vendors will be displaced. A complaint has been made that financial assistance through banks does not exist to assist these vendors. The reality is that commercial banks in Guyana engage in asset-based lending. Lending for the development of businesses by way of debentures is a highly complicated process suited only for big businesses. However, there is the Small Business Bureau, which is government operated, and the Institute of Private Enterprise Development (IPED) which is privately operated. I suspect, however, that the vendors who are really in need will not qualify for assistance from these institutions.

Vending began, developed and grew in populated areas slowly but expanded rapidly during the 1970s and 1980s when economic hardships increased. It eventually developed a life of its own and has now taken over large swaths of the city. The City Council, which is responsible for preventing the encumbering the streets did nothing when vending on the streets of Georgetown commenced. In the early years the City Council had the capacity to stop the small scale vending but it is suspected that for political and other reasons, it did not. The scale of vending has now outgrown the capacity of both the City Council or the Government to stop or to control. In many cases the City Council collects fees from vendors. Georgetown is now a city of vendors and so are several towns across the country.    

Private businesses have learnt that vending encumbers pavements and surrounding areas and is unlawful. About fifteen years ago a vendor asked permission to operate a small tray outside of the building in which I worked. I saw no harm and allowed her. Within a year about half a dozen vendors had established a virtual market outside the building with the attendant noise, foul language, garbage and pick pocketing. It took about five years to remove them, first by persuasion, then by court order. They then moved in front of the building next door and remained there for about ten years until removed by the City Council.

The next challenge was that the Police Force  sought to extend mini bus parking outside the entire portion of Avenue of the Republic from Croal Street to Robb Street. The horror of this potential atrocity drove us to make representations which turned out to be absolutely useless. Georgetown faced the prospect of mini bus parks being extended to the Bank of Guyana, then the Public Library and further. We obtained a court order against the Commissioner who failed, refused and/or declined to remove the mini busses that had already began to park on Avenue of the Republic. Appeals to the Government were roundly rejected. It took an application to the court for an order of contempt against the Commissioner of Police before he obeyed the court order. It is anyone’s guess at  the additional chaos that would have overtaken this already overcrowded part of Avenue of the Republic with the increased congestion, increased vending, increased garbage, increased crime and increased flooding.

Other business with premises owners surrounded by vendors have learnt of the possibility of their removal by court order and some have invoked the court’s jurisdiction. There have been appeals by the vendors and their representatives to the City Council and the Government for assistance. The question is: What kind of assistance is available? The only realistic possibility is finding another area to place the vendors. Two problems arise. The first is that Georgetown cannot accommodate more vendors because there is no space. The second is that neither the City nor the government can be seen to be approbating activities which encumbers pavements and roadways.

Georgetown cannot and will not remain a city whose pavements are overtaken by vendors. A combination of factors, developments in Agricola, other developments such as the hotel by the seawall affecting the vendors on Seawall Road, private legal action by business owners, in other words, as capitalism grows in Guyana, the numbers and activities of vendors will be reduced. Vendors will be well advised to begin to consider their futures.