VENDORS who traded their wares on the street of Montego Bay over the Christmas holidays said sales were not as good as previous years, but they were happy with the level of business generated.

“Mi naw bawl, although mi have a lot of goods left. I didn’t do a lot of business but mi still a give thanks,” said shoe vendor Earl Powell, who sells his wares on St James Street.

Miriam Noble who left the vendors’ arcade for the streets said business was better on the streets. “This is my first year on the street; I was one of those who bought one of the shop and I had to leave it because no business was over there,” she said. “Business was not good but not bad either, but certainly better than the arcade.”

Michael Lawrence, a six-year veteran on the streets, said Christmas could have been better but his business was affected by the reopening of St James Street.

“My little base deh a back and because a the traffic it was not that good,” he said. “But mi still a give thanks, you done know.”

Mickey Nemhard, who has been in the business for the past three years, said Christmas sales were down but despite that he has no plans to find another line of work.

“Nutten nah gwaan, but mi haffi hold de faith. Last year was better,” he said.

City leaders had launched a massive anti-street vending drive that restricted sellers to sections of the tourist resort.

The initiative has worked fairly well, but the vendors were out in full force on the street over the holiday season. They recently took over the newly reopened section of St James Street that was closed to accommodate work on the South Gully project.