Merida’s downtown streets are full of seasonal vendors

This situation causes obstacles for pedestrians trying to walk on the sidewalks….

MERIDA — Despite the fact that the Mexican Institute of Finance Executives (IMEF) has indicated that informal trade in Merida has slackened somewhat, the Merida Council granted for these Dia de Muertos holidays 30 permits to street vendors who settled in the corridor located between the City Museum and the building known as “El Portal de Granos”.

From an early hour until November 2, these 30 merchants were offering traditional Yucatan sweets, flowers, costumes and “freshly baked” pibes.

Each one knew its place since the municipality delimited and enumerated the spaces so that they were placed without any problem.

It is already common for “important” dates such as Mothers’ Day, Valentine’s Day and New Year’s Eve that the Merida Markets Subdirectorate grant permits to street vendors.

However, despite the fact that the city has granted such amount of permits, the streets of the downtown are “overflowed” by informal vendors; this is a problem that no municipal authority has been able to fix.

It is common to see that at the end of the year these merchants are installed due to the demand of citizens to make their “Día de Muertos” and December purchases. The market inspectors generally do not evict them, although it is an “illicit” activity.

In the first semester, 324,463 people were considered to be in the informal sector in the state. This situation is also of concern to the Chamber of Commerce in Merida, which has repeatedly expressed its commitment to implement concrete strategies to put an end to this problem.

In addition to street vendors, the well-established merchants also face competition from the well-known “Chiapanecos”, who will also increase in the streets of the Historic Center in the coming days.

Source: www.sipse.com/milenio_novedades