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Street Smarts
On the margins of mainstream retail, New Haven street vendors lend urban flavor to the center city
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Business New Haven
3/19/2001
By: Anne-Marie Bringard
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Braving cold and wind, hot and sunny, snowy or rainy days, downtown street vendors bring their own distinctive flavor to the New Haven business scene. Yes, biotech companies and Internet startups get all the ink, but what of those men and women whose bread and butter is literally found on the street?
From hot dogs and sodas to scented oils, sunglasses and designer clothing, the bustling downtown crowd is familiar with the street vendors. Often considered on the fringe of the business community, if acknowledged at all, street vendors make rapid sales while checking customer satisfaction and assessing new trends.
“This is a business and our livelihood,” said Mustafa Abdush-Shaker, owner and operator of Sensational Fragrance on Church Street (across from the New Haven Variety Store), echoing a frustration shared by the other vendors.
Relationship-Building 101
Building relationships is critical to the success of any street vendor, but not quite in the same way that it is for traditional businesses.
Vendors must delicately build relationships with the retail storeowners, with whom they have a somewhat symbiotic relationship. Admittedly this works a lot better in New York City. Busy shoppers slow down just enough to see what's on the vendors' tables, giving them an opportunity to view store windows and ideally buy in both places. But from some the perspective of shop-owners, street vendors are considered a nuisance, blocking doorways and traffic.
Which brings us to the second relationship that must be managed: between the street vendor and the police. Investigating complaints from store owners can lead to persistent checks on potential city code violations - are the vendors more than 50 feet apart, are they at least five feet from the storefront, is the table exactly five feet and eight inches long, etc.? A permit will prevent a change in location, but police presence adds to the negative image that the street vendors fight every day.
Of course satisfied customers are good for any business, and many customers who patronize street vendors are fiercely loyal. Although there is much competition in the scented oils and incense market (Chapel Street, Church Street and in the Chapel Square Mall), if a particular item is out, they will tend to come back to their vendor.
Abdush-Shaker credits a four-year history that has encouraged regular customers. Each street vendor attracts customers in his own way, but it is clear that personal contact, handshakes, lots of eye contact and everyday banter are still considered good business practice.
Leamond Suggs of Askia's Fine Fragrances in the Chapel Square Mall recently moved from Chapel Street (near Orange) to a kiosk inside the mall to “legitimize the business.” He noted that without the benefit of store windows and lavish displays “You actually have to sell the product.”
Small Business Challenges
Let's face it, the street vendor image is not necessarily the best. Many people think of them as the kings and queens of designer rip-offs. Or they're the “Haggle until you get a better price, so we must be getting ripped off” vendors.
New Haven street vendors answer back by being friendly but laid back with potential customers, they know many of their regulars by name. Other image-building strategies include exchanging merchandise if necessary, constantly updating inventory to meet customer needs and making every effort to keep their areas neat and clean, even checking for litter in the immediate area.
There appears to be a concerted effort by vendors to help customers and passers-by feel at ease. Still, “We are often looked at with suspicion,” acknowledges Suggs.
Growth and expansion is a hot topic in any business. Imagine if you couldn't expand your business by increasing size, staffing or inventory. This is just one limitation placed on street vendors. City regulations forbid individuals from owning more than one permit, so business expansion is legally constrained.
Unless regulations change, with adjustments for employee turnover, the vendors must remain satisfied with their current income potential or consider moving to a traditional retail environment.
Although lacking support from the traditional business community, sources of capital and some store owners, the street vendors band together to mentor and support each other.
Abdush-Shaker encouraged and helped a new vendor until he finally moved into a kiosk in the Chapel Square Mall. Suggs lent some shelf space to Derek Miller, who recently opened D&K Wear, selling designer clothing in the kiosk now next to Suggs'. Miller (himself a former street vendor) is showing his 16-year-old daughter the ropes in the hopes that she too will pursue entrepreneurial ventures. “That's how it works,” says Miller, “you show them some love and they show you some love back.”
Big Business Vision
There are certainly arguments on both sides about the continued economic viability of downtown New Haven's retail sector.
Recent blows include the closing of the American Discount and Rainbow stores. Both stores, located across Church Street from the mall, attracted pedestrian mothers with children to the area - a key street-vendor target market.
The vendors in general remain optimistic about the future of downtown. They have to be. Suggs points out that, “Because of the bus lines, everyone converges in [this area of downtown]; whether coming or going, there is always traffic.” Redevelopment in the area encourages the vendors to hold on. Hopes of bringing more businesses downtown, and new apartment developments are all pluses as far as they are concerned. The downtown street vendors are ready to attract new customers and “broaden to other ethnic groups,” said Suggs.
The street vendors have strong ideas about what would help downtown generally, including bringing an entertainment center to the Chapel Square Mall or the former Macy's, seeing what other cities are doing, developing a year-round international theme market, and more restaurants. There is talk on the street of the vendors coming together to form an organization that could represent their common needs and develop stronger relationships with store owners.
So what does it take to be a street vendor?
Aside from the obvious - the city permit, a regulation-size table and wholesale contacts in New York - the backgrounds and personalities of downtown street vendors are as diverse as their wares.
They entered the business for different reasons and have business experience ranging from asbestos specialists to retail-store clerks. Ask about their future and be prepared for a long discussion about the possibility of moving to a retail store or establishing a distributorship.
They are proud to be business owners, and prouder still of their business achievements. They have cornered the niche market of “direct street sales.” Business schools don't teach this in any entrepreneurial course. There are no plush corner offices in their immediate futures - and they don't mind a bit.
The street vendors do have some things in common. As do most entrepreneurs, they have a strong desire to make their own way. The most successful among them have grit and vision, are creative, and do not give up. In particular, the vendors have not given up on downtown New Haven.
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