Christmas shopping on Beckford Street in downtown Kingston. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

Jamaica's traditional 'Christmas breeze' has brought a chilly reception to roadside vendors, who have reported lower-than-expected sales triggered by conservative shoppers and a saturated marketplace.

"Too much sellers out here, all the schoolers dem out here a sell," said Robert Johnson, a 40-year-old higgler who has been selling for a decade.

The streets of downtown Kingston, a shopping Mecca in and out of season, have been lined with vendors selling everything from the proverbial pin to an anchor.

But sellers far outnumber buyers, vendors complain.

The island's struggling economy, which has in recent months come under more pressure from price hikes and a Jamaican dollar on the skids against the greenback, has taken a toll on consumers.

Hive of activity

Along Beckford Street, pedestrians jostled with pedlars for room on sidewalks, which have been transformed into vending villages. Cardboard boxes overflowing with confectioneries and other light goods littered walkways; wares were cleverly placed on tarpaulin to aid a quick getaway if the police intervened and handcart vendors wended their way through the maze of bodies on the road.

Johnson, a handcart vendor who mainly sells women's clothes, told The Gleaner that slow sales have forced him to sacrifice profit margins to offload goods.

Penny-pinching shoppers are looking, touching, but not taking the bait.

"I only make $100 and $200 profit on most of my goods. People want to buy but they don't have the money," added Johnson.

The complaint has become an all-too-familiar refrain mournfully sung by merchants - from itinerant traders to retail chains - in the final stretch of blowout sales before Christmas.

Trickling sales

Sheryl Pummel, a 35-year-old higgler, said she, too, has been affected by the swelling ranks of small-scale, roaming traders.

She sells predominantly women's footwear and handbags, which she sources mainly from Miami and Los Angeles in the United States.

Pummel, who has been vending since she was 18, told The Gleaner that wholesales in the shopping district were stifling business minnows.

"Wi can't compete wid dem prices," she said.

To head off a stock pile-up which might result from trickling sales, Pummel said she had slashed her inventory and priced goods below ideal targets.

"Mi nuh see anybody a buy. Wi a lose big time, but mi can't give up," she said.

michelle-ann.letman @gleanerjm.com