My name is Frank, i work at Jose O'Shay's in Cabarete. to give you an example of just how aggressive and terrible the situation is with the beach vendors in Cabarete, allow me to recant some recent transactions:
1.) yesterday was NFL Sunday, we had a packed house, i had to sit facing the beach for 4 hours while beach vendors tried to come into the restaurant to sell plastic jewlery and CD's and Ciagrs to customers trying to watch football and eat their meal. The vendors recognize all the managers at Jose O'Shay's, so what they do is stand on the beach directly in front of the retaurant--a half-dozen of them, sometimes more--and watch the managers; when they see us go to the bathroom or run up to the office, or go into the back of the kitchen, they immediately run into the restaurant and go directly up to the bar and to the tables where people are sitting and start pulling their jewlery and Cd's out and laying it on the table even while people are trying to eat their food or watch a soccer, NFL, MLB, or hockey game...it doesn't matter how busy the customer is or whether or not he or she is just trying to eat their meal in peace or have a conversation, the vendors will immediately interupt them and start pulling things out of their boxes and back packs (CD's) and setting them on the tables in front of them. it's beyong terrible, it's beyond annoying, it's beyond acceptable behavior.
I wish i had $1 for everytime i interrupted these transactions and threw the vendors out and then have the vendors come right back in as soon as i turn my back to answer someone's question. the vendors repeatedly threaten us; it doesn't bother me, but it does have the potency of scaring our customers. They get very aggressive. i wish i had $1 for everytime i threw a vendor out and then had them threaten me. i never touch them physically; i only ask them to leave and stand right in-between them and our customers until they do leave.
Every employee in Cabarete working in a restaurant or bar will know exactly what i'm talking about here. this is every minute of every hour of the day that the vendors are trying to come into the restaurants and bars and sell things to people while many tourists are running into the restaurants for the exact reason in order to escape from the vendors on the beach! in other words, the tourists will flee the beach and seek refuge in a restaurant only to have the vendors follow them into the restaurant in order to continue their sales pitch. it would be comical if it wasn't so aggressive and unrelenting! anyone here doubting any of this i personally invite you into the restaurant on any Sunday of your choosing so that you can see for yourself first hand how bad it is. i came in yesterday (Sunday) just to help out the other manager, Kevin, who has a hundred more important things to do than playing policeman--he has to find people's football games, help the wait staff and bartenders with an assortment of stuff, fix the computers, get change, etc.--he doesn't have time to police the vendors and keep them out of the restaurant. his name is Kevin and my name is Frank, and i welcome anyone here to come and see just how out-of-control the situation is on any day of the week, but especialy Sundays when we have a full house and the vendors are eager to get a a packed restaurant of potential tourists to sell too.
2.) as for some previous comparisons and comments on a different post, let me just address a few that i remember: comparing Cabarete to Jamaica is not a fair comparison, and then suggesting that the tourists or ex-pats "get used to it!" is not fair either! How is "Getting used to it" going to solve anything? Jamaica is beyond out of control with aggressive vendors, and getting used to it is not going to solve anything, and it's not going to encourage tourists to come back either. Trying to have your lunch or dinner with your family and having two or three beach vendors standing around your table while you try to eat your food and they're pulling things out of their boxes==jewelry, CD's, Cigar boxes, etc and setting it next to your food and trying to encourage you to buy it and not taking "NO" for an answer, is that something a tourist should get "Used too!?"
3.) it's a full-time job just standing at the entrance of our restaurant and keeping vendors out of the restaurant. the only restaurant that i've seen them stay out of is Nikki Beach. i don't know who Nikki Beach spoke to or what they did but, it seemed to have worked. Good for them. But the vendors have free reign of the restaurant tables on the beach--that's public property--we can't keep them away from any customer who is brave enough to sit on the beach and try and enjoy their drinks or meals on the beach. Imagen paying a lot of money for your vacation or honeymoon and you got 6 or 7 beach jewlery vendors, 5 or 6 shoe-shine boys, 3 or 4 Haitian hair-braiders & Massage girls standing around your table or beach chair and you don't even have enough time to finish your drink because they come up to you one after another every minute of every hour and some of them will not take "No" for an answer. I see it every hour of every day, and i've seen it for 4 years now, and it hasn't changed! and we haven't even begun to talk about "Chupa" the mentally handicapped girl asking for 5 pesos every ten minutes and she DOES NOT TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER! Period. and there is another three or four other mentally handicapped men and women who do not, and will not take no for an answer! and then there is the handicapped, cripple people who come up to your table--some are missing legs, some are missing arms, some are blind...the list is endless. i feel terrible for the handicapped people, and i'm especially polite to them, but they don't stop coming, and they keep coming back every ten minutes, over and over, making their repititious rounds back and forth to all of the restaurants and bars. there's never a moment of just peace and quite. don't even think for a second that you could take a nap on the beach or read a book in tranquility. Never going to happen.
Frank
1.) yesterday was NFL Sunday, we had a packed house, i had to sit facing the beach for 4 hours while beach vendors tried to come into the restaurant to sell plastic jewlery and CD's and Ciagrs to customers trying to watch football and eat their meal. The vendors recognize all the managers at Jose O'Shay's, so what they do is stand on the beach directly in front of the retaurant--a half-dozen of them, sometimes more--and watch the managers; when they see us go to the bathroom or run up to the office, or go into the back of the kitchen, they immediately run into the restaurant and go directly up to the bar and to the tables where people are sitting and start pulling their jewlery and Cd's out and laying it on the table even while people are trying to eat their food or watch a soccer, NFL, MLB, or hockey game...it doesn't matter how busy the customer is or whether or not he or she is just trying to eat their meal in peace or have a conversation, the vendors will immediately interupt them and start pulling things out of their boxes and back packs (CD's) and setting them on the tables in front of them. it's beyong terrible, it's beyond annoying, it's beyond acceptable behavior.
I wish i had $1 for everytime i interrupted these transactions and threw the vendors out and then have the vendors come right back in as soon as i turn my back to answer someone's question. the vendors repeatedly threaten us; it doesn't bother me, but it does have the potency of scaring our customers. They get very aggressive. i wish i had $1 for everytime i threw a vendor out and then had them threaten me. i never touch them physically; i only ask them to leave and stand right in-between them and our customers until they do leave.
Every employee in Cabarete working in a restaurant or bar will know exactly what i'm talking about here. this is every minute of every hour of the day that the vendors are trying to come into the restaurants and bars and sell things to people while many tourists are running into the restaurants for the exact reason in order to escape from the vendors on the beach! in other words, the tourists will flee the beach and seek refuge in a restaurant only to have the vendors follow them into the restaurant in order to continue their sales pitch. it would be comical if it wasn't so aggressive and unrelenting! anyone here doubting any of this i personally invite you into the restaurant on any Sunday of your choosing so that you can see for yourself first hand how bad it is. i came in yesterday (Sunday) just to help out the other manager, Kevin, who has a hundred more important things to do than playing policeman--he has to find people's football games, help the wait staff and bartenders with an assortment of stuff, fix the computers, get change, etc.--he doesn't have time to police the vendors and keep them out of the restaurant. his name is Kevin and my name is Frank, and i welcome anyone here to come and see just how out-of-control the situation is on any day of the week, but especialy Sundays when we have a full house and the vendors are eager to get a a packed restaurant of potential tourists to sell too.
2.) as for some previous comparisons and comments on a different post, let me just address a few that i remember: comparing Cabarete to Jamaica is not a fair comparison, and then suggesting that the tourists or ex-pats "get used to it!" is not fair either! How is "Getting used to it" going to solve anything? Jamaica is beyond out of control with aggressive vendors, and getting used to it is not going to solve anything, and it's not going to encourage tourists to come back either. Trying to have your lunch or dinner with your family and having two or three beach vendors standing around your table while you try to eat your food and they're pulling things out of their boxes==jewelry, CD's, Cigar boxes, etc and setting it next to your food and trying to encourage you to buy it and not taking "NO" for an answer, is that something a tourist should get "Used too!?"
3.) it's a full-time job just standing at the entrance of our restaurant and keeping vendors out of the restaurant. the only restaurant that i've seen them stay out of is Nikki Beach. i don't know who Nikki Beach spoke to or what they did but, it seemed to have worked. Good for them. But the vendors have free reign of the restaurant tables on the beach--that's public property--we can't keep them away from any customer who is brave enough to sit on the beach and try and enjoy their drinks or meals on the beach. Imagen paying a lot of money for your vacation or honeymoon and you got 6 or 7 beach jewlery vendors, 5 or 6 shoe-shine boys, 3 or 4 Haitian hair-braiders & Massage girls standing around your table or beach chair and you don't even have enough time to finish your drink because they come up to you one after another every minute of every hour and some of them will not take "No" for an answer. I see it every hour of every day, and i've seen it for 4 years now, and it hasn't changed! and we haven't even begun to talk about "Chupa" the mentally handicapped girl asking for 5 pesos every ten minutes and she DOES NOT TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER! Period. and there is another three or four other mentally handicapped men and women who do not, and will not take no for an answer! and then there is the handicapped, cripple people who come up to your table--some are missing legs, some are missing arms, some are blind...the list is endless. i feel terrible for the handicapped people, and i'm especially polite to them, but they don't stop coming, and they keep coming back every ten minutes, over and over, making their repititious rounds back and forth to all of the restaurants and bars. there's never a moment of just peace and quite. don't even think for a second that you could take a nap on the beach or read a book in tranquility. Never going to happen.
Frank