WITH just a few days left before the traditional grand market shopping day, vendors in May Pen say they are relieved to know that plans to relocate the event to the Denbigh Agricultural Showground have been shelved.

The vendors claim they were told by town mayor, Scean Barnswell and the police that the customary conversion of the town’s main thoroughfares to facilitate the hundreds of shoppers who normally turn out, would not be done this year.

Traditionally, the vendors are allowed to converge on the town centre, and spread their wares in the roads, which are transformed into walkways for shoppers on the night.

But Mayor Barnswell said the rumours are unfounded and relocating the grand market “would be downright foolish”.

“I have no idea where they (the vendors) got that from, I never said that,” he protested.

He added that removing the grand market to the showground would also adversely affect the business community, as the prospective customers would have been directed miles away from the town centre.

“That is what they told us,” a vendor who identified herself as Dimple said.

The vendor, who said she has been selling in May Pen for over 10 years, described the proposed relocation as one that would “mash up business”.

“In the meeting that they had with us (the vendors) and the police, they said the town would not be blocked off for us to sell on grand market night, said Blacks, a vendor who claimed to be selling in May Pen for over 20 years.

Some business owners, who wished not to be named, said they too had heard the speculations and were hoping that it was indeed erroneous.

“Moving the grand market would not be feasible at all,” says Mary Lai, of Macy department store. She said the grand market night congestion in the town is always a challenge for shoppers and the authorities but “it’s this heavy foot traffic that the businesses count on”.

Meanwhile, businesses and vendors said they are prepared for a large turnout of shoppers. The vendors however, are more optimistic about the spending power of their customers than the business owners.

“I’ve bought up over $20,000 worth of goods and if everything run right, I know I can more than double that,” Blacks said.

“A lot of people throw partner to save up so they can buy stock for grand market, so we expect good business,” another vendor, Joy, said.

The business community is however, guarded in their expectations.

“Its hard to predict what will happen but I don’t expect brisk sales,” Lai said. “Everybody is watching their pockets and things are getting more and more expensive,” she added.

“Grand market is the best night of the year for me so I have stocked up on everything I normally carry,” Anthony Folks of High Fashion Boutique said.

By Folks’ reckoning, the general business community is sceptic about the season’s sales but added that owners and operators are still hoping for the best.

“If we were to judge from the fall-off of remittances and the overall decrease in the spending power of the masses, the picture would seem quite bleak, but we can’t let that hang over us,” he said.

He said the foot traffic in the town has picked up as the holiday progresses so “there is hope yet for a good season”.

“I am still watching to see what will happen,” Whimpy’s Couture owner, Novelette Lewis, said.

“I’m really not feeling it now because not many people (are) spending but I’m hoping that the weekend leading up to Christmas will be better,” she said.

She expects the festive mood to influence the spending of those “who buy at the last minute”, she said.

Lai said while she hopes for the best, her advise to shoppers is, to make responsible purchases.