Even as oil prices fall, the popular Christmas flea market at Mid Centre Mall in Chaguanas opened on Thursday with shoppers carefully watching their pockets. The mall’s carpark was full yesterday and a steady stream of shoppers trickled in and out of the flea market. Store owners, street vendors and those who come out to sell only at Christmas remained optimistic. “The flea market opened only two days now. The week before Christmas is chaos,” a woman in full Muslim wear, a seasonal vendor, said.
She sat under her tent, which was filled with accessories, ornaments and clothes, but no shoppers. She did not look worried and said their busiest times were on evenings after working hours and weekends. In another tent, a young man with an Indian accent and Indian wear said, “It’s hard to say yet. “Right now, people only buying for children. I sell jewelry, toys, slippers. The toys selling most.”
A man and his two sons looking at the items in tents along the flea market’s main aisle said falling oil prices were affecting his spending this year. “I’m cutting down on spending. We’re just buying the necessities. “The essentials of life,” one of his young sons added. “Food and healthcare. Toys are not essentials.” A woman looking at toys with a young child said, “Yes, I am looking at the situation with falling oil prices. I just came from the grocery and bought only the necessities.
“Instead of buying expensive toys, I am looking for cost-effective durable ones.” In a booth run by Venezuelan Raphael Naranjo, amazingly realistic wooden chiquito and moko figs, pumpkin and other fruit and vegetables were on display. Naranjo said people were paying for the items, which he and a friend painstakingly carved. “This morning a lady bought a big tray.”
Sources at the mall said crime was also a problem in Chaguanas and shopping was not on the minds of a significant number of the people who came to the area for Christmas. Purse-snatchers and shoplifters mingle in the crowd, usually in groups, sometimes as couples, posing as shoppers, scoping out the area for opportunities to steal. A woman running a booth in the flea market said they did not look like criminals. “Decent-looking, good-looking people.”
She said one would distract the attendants in the booth while the other shoplifted items. But one of four police officers patrolling the flea market yesterday brushed off claims of high crime in the compound. “I work here year after year and there are no major robberies.”