RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA
rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Street ven­dors say they will sur­vive de­spite the shut­ting down of all food out­lets by Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia be­fore the Prime Min­is­ter is­sued the ban, fruit ven­dor Rudy Seer­aj said most ven­dors were ac­cus­tomed to hard times.

"It's the peo­ple who go fine din­ing and mall shop­ping who will suf­fer. If we are shut down we could still go in the gar­den and bub­ble a pot," Seer­aj said.

Along the Man­a­ham­bre Road in Ste Madeleine, peo­ple were seen buy­ing dou­bles and pies be­fore the Prime Min­is­ter's an­nounce­ment.

Some de­fend­ed their de­ci­sion say­ing that they have no time to cook.

Mar­lon Car­ring­ton said he usu­al­ly brings food to work but he ran out of time to pre­pare break­fast so on his way to work he de­cid­ed to buy dou­bles.

Ki­mo Her­bert said, " I wake up late to­day so I de­cide to buy some­thing. Not every­body has the time to cook."

At the pop­u­lar Debe dou­bles strip, there were min­i­mal lines be­fore the Prime Min­is­ter's an­nounce­ment.

Rad­i­ca Ar­joon­s­ingh of Port-of-Spain said she had a death in her fam­i­ly and while on her way to see rel­a­tives she stopped for dou­bles.

"We are so­cial­ly dis­tanced and wear­ing our mask. There are no long lines so I don't think it's a risk," Ar­joon­s­ingh said.

Raphael Paul who sat eat­ing dou­bles in his car echoed sim­i­lar sen­ti­ments.

"As long as we are so­cial­ly dis­tanced and wear­ing masks, it's OK," he said.

Dou­bles ven­dor Jonathan Ram­lakhan of Nir­mal's Dou­bles said sales had been de­creas­ing since the an­nounce­ment of a par­tial shut­down by the Prime Min­is­ter last week.

"The ma­jor­i­ty of peo­ple are out of jobs so they have no mon­ey to buy food, so sales have been de­creas­ing since the pan­dem­ic," Ram­lakhan said.

He added that many peo­ple stop to get dou­bles for break­fast or din­ner be­cause it was rea­son­ably priced.

He said those who make pur­chas­es are the ones who work and have no time to pre­pare meals.

Mar­garet Ma­haraj, who was seen wait­ing to buy dou­bles said she usu­al­ly cooked but de­cid­ed to buy dou­bles yes­ter­day be­cause there were no long lines.

Since the Prime Min­is­ter's an­nounce­ment ban­ning the open­ing of restau­rants last week Thurs­day, there have been long lines at many street food out­lets. Some restau­rants even opened street side stalls which cre­at­ed long lines. The Prime Min­is­ter has warned all cit­i­zens to stop con­verg­ing for food say­ing cit­i­zens should stay in­doors as much as pos­si­ble and on­ly ven­ture out­side in cas­es of emer­gen­cies.