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Thursday,
August 9,
2007, #151 (1418)
By Anna Kamushadze Police booted out unlicensed vendors from Mshrali Khidi (Dry Bridge) on August 8, prompting outcries from merchants who say they can't afford to pay stall fees at city markets. "Police in black came this morning and raided us. They didn't show us any official documents," said Natela Avsajanishvili, a street vendor. The vendors, who array their wares on sidewalks and curbsides, blame merchants from the Dry Bridge Bazaar, a market below the vendors hawking their goods, for urging police to make the raid. "Those traders from the Bazaar…sell antiques and do transactions in Euros; I can't afford to go into the Bazaar. I'd sell a book for ten tetri and then have to pay huge fees to the market," Avsajanishvili complained. The Bazaar administration say the street vendors have been a headache for the last seven years, selling cheap goods and poaching customers from the indoor market. Merchants inside the Bazaar pay GEL 40 a month for their space; the street vendors pay nothing. "We sell second-hand goods and they [the Bazaar merchants] have antiques. We work with sums of two or three lari, and they make dollars. We were offered to go [into the Bazaar] but we can't afford the USD 150-200 in fees, so we'd prefer stay in the street," explained street vendor Izo to the Messenger. Police descended on Dry Bridge the evening of August 7. They were there the next morning to keep the vendors away. Police declined to speak with the Messenger. Street vendors alleged the police had no warrants or other legal documents to back up their sweep. And they weren't willing to go quietly. "We are below the poverty level. We have official documents proving this. My son fought in the Abkhazian war and he is sick with nerve damage. I have no money to live. I can't go down to the Bazaar and pay their fees. Besides, I sell goods from my home. Those guys buy and sell antiques. I can't compete with them," Valida Tulashvili said. Tulashvili said that the police timed their mid-week raid well. There are about 700 street vendors on the weekends, she estimated, and far fewer on weekdays. "We will announce a hunger strike if we aren't allowed to return to our places," she declared. Contrary to some street vendors' claims, the monthly stall fee in the Bazaar is not more than GEL 40. Merchants registered there retort that the unlicensed street vendors are hurting their business. "We pay taxes. They don't," said Bazaar merchant Opelia Saakashvili. "And the home antiques we'd buy from customers are snatched up by the street vendors before they get here. Business dropped, we had nothing to sell, no money, and couldn't pay our taxes and fees. Only tourists shopped with us. And that went on for eight years," she told the Messenger. "Let them come and sit with us, there's enough space in this Bazaar for all of us," said Tsisana Mikeladze, another merchant. The Bazaar merchants
claimed that the market administration had offered the street vendors
a deal-come inside the Bazaar and pay nothing for three months. The
street vendors reportedly refused. |
Authorities
crack down on Dry Bridge street vendors