By Jane Mosgrove
Merchants on Sparks Street will be able to maintain kiosks on the street, while independent vendors have been banned from the mall.
The Sparks Street Management Board’s decision has vendors such as Ray Sally outraged. Sally operates the Canada Clock Company and has sold his clocks and other cedar merchandise on Sparks Street for two years.
“I’m not going to give up this fight. If I have to, I’ll go to court,” Sally says. “They’re infringing on my basic human rights.”
Sally started a petition to protest the board’s decision. He says he’s spoken to merchants, politicians and members of the public and about 80 per cent of them support vendors in the street.
Sally says he’s hoping to have about 5,000 signatures by the end of April.
But Sally says the petition isn’t his first attempt to keep vendors in the mall. He says he wrote a letter last month to the mall management about the issue and it was not acknowledged. Sally says he’s also attempted to contact members of the board by phone, fax and in person.
Sally says he believes merchants were initially going to be prohibited from keeping kiosks as well and the board only reinstated them to counteract criticism and the media attention.
Judy Mance, the manager of Quichua Crafts on Sparks Street says she has mixed feelings about the decision to ban vendors.
“I’m pleased with the outcome from our point of view,” she says, “but I feel bad for the vendors that have no other venue.”
Mance says vendors have a lot to offer the mall and many merchants do not oppose having them there. She says she had an employee conduct an informal survey about the issue.
Mance says 17 stores were canvassed and 14 were against closing the vendors and of the remaining three merchants, two said they would support the vendors if their tents and overall image were improved.
“The more you add to the product mix the more you sell and that’s good for everyone,” Mance says. “I think in this case the naysayers are more active in the issue and they’re being loud and passionate.”
Mance says in speaking with members of the board they outlined several reasons for removing vendors from Sparks Street.
“The primary reason I’ve been given is that they didn’t fit into the ‘uncluttered’ vision for Sparks Street,” she says.
Other concerns Mance says she heard is vendors draw away business from merchants and run “shoddy” tents.
Mance says some of the complaints about vendors are valid. She says some of them don’t maintain their tables or tents, others leave garbage or rotting fruit around and others don’t maintain the consistent hours outlined in their contracts.
William Cornet, vice-chairman of the management board, says attempts to monitor the vendors are useless. Cornet also runs Classico Uomo a men’s shop.
“For so many years we’ve tried to police these people and it doesn’t work,” he says. “We outline the criteria for the vendor, then they don’t follow through, they do what they want.”
Sally says it’s his job, as a good vendor, to maintain the area where he sells his wares. He says he’s invested $1,100 to re-cover the plywood tables he received as a vendor that were in “terrible shape” and he purchased professional signs. Sally also says he has offered to tailor the look of his tables to management specifications.
Ken Dale, a former executive director for the mall, questions the actions of the current management board.
“They’re dismantling the initiatives that attracted people to Sparks Street,” he says referring to the removal of vendors as well as events such as the chicken and ribs cook-off. “If it’s worn, polish it up, don’t throw it out.”