Aggressive Beach Harassment in Cabarete

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frank12

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Sep 6, 2011
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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
 

beeza

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Nov 2, 2006
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I hear your pain and sympathise.

But I'm sure that you or your establishment can do something about it. O'shays must make enough profit from your over inflated prices that you must be able to afford to do your own policing or at least persuade the proper authorities.

I'm sure a few bob in the direction of the local Politur chief would sort things out. Invite him over for lunch (out of uniform), show him what the problem is and make it worth his while to do something about it.
 

Ringo

On Vacation!
Mar 6, 2003
2,823
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It IS very simple. My wife, self and friends DO NOT GO TO PLACES THAT WE ARE HAR-ASSED.

Sorry to hear about your problem but then again your place has been at the lower end of my places to go due to prices. WAY N.Y.C. and I'm just a local that lives here F.T.

It is not your clients problem it is yours. As it has been in Sosua for the last few years. The people that live here, have money and want to go out..... DON'T.
 

frank12

Gold
Sep 6, 2011
11,847
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I hear your pain and sympathise.

I'm sure a few bob in the direction of the local Politur chief would sort things out. Invite him over for lunch (out of uniform), show him what the problem is and make it worth his while to do something about it.

If only it was that simple!

We've had meetings with both the politur and the man in charge of the beach vendors (I forget his name, but i'll find it out and place it here tomorrow) and it's to no avail. None. Zero! If it was only as simple as buying lunch and placing a few dollars in someone's pocket the issue would have been resolved years ago. On the contrary. Also, we would still have all the physically and mentally handicapped people to contend with, plus the shoe-shine boys, the beggars, etc. And we would still have all the problems with the vendors who have free reign of the beach customers. the beach is public, any vendor can approach anyone they want. there's nothing we or anyone else can do about it. that's why it's like a free-for-all on the beach with the vendors all standing in line to sell tourists everything under the sun--CD's, Cigars, Plastic jewelry, Hair-braiding, massages, adventure tours, etc. the list is endless!
 

belmont

Bronze
Oct 9, 2009
1,536
10
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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
Frank,
I guess Cabarete Beach Harassment wasn't enough to post in. You did get some responses to to your post there. Why start a new thread? Is there a difference from harassment and agressive harassment?
http://www.dr1.com/forums/north-coast/118154-cabarette-harassment-cont-4.html
 

frank12

Gold
Sep 6, 2011
11,847
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Thanks Belmont,

I posted in the "Cabarete Beach Harrassment" but then never saw it anywhere on the front page, and then i searched the first few pages and couldn't find it. then i couldn't remember what the name of the post where i posted it! Sorry.

I'm used to other blogs where after you post a response to something, it moves it to the front page where one can easily find it. Or did i miss something?
 

frank12

Gold
Sep 6, 2011
11,847
29
48
I appreciate the response Ringo. We do a pretty good job of keeping out the vendors but, like i mentioned, it's a full-time job. it takes a consorted effort and we've been doing it for a long time now, but it's taxing, it's time consuming, and it requires a lot of energy, and quite frankly, some days, you just want to pull your hair out.

You ask them nicely, "please stay out of the restaurant. Do you understand?"
"Yes, i understand."
"Thank you. Have a good day."
Then the manager turns around to take care of something else and when we turn back around, they're right back at the customers table.
We approach them again and ask them again: "I asked you to please stay out of the restaurant...you said that you understood, right?. why did you come back inside?"
"I don't know." is the typical answer.

again, it would be comical if it wasn't every hour of every day. Sometimes i laugh myself at the absurdity of the situation.

It IS very simple. My wife, self and friends DO NOT GO TO PLACES THAT WE ARE HAR-ASSED.

Sorry to hear about your problem but then again your place has been at the lower end of my places to go due to prices. WAY N.Y.C. and I'm just a local that lives here F.T.

It is not your clients problem it is yours. As it has been in Sosua for the last few years. The people that live here, have money and want to go out..... DON'T.
 
Last edited:

belmont

Bronze
Oct 9, 2009
1,536
10
0
Thanks Belmont,

I posted in the "Cabarete Beach Harrassment" but then never saw it anywhere on the front page, and then i searched the first few pages and couldn't find it. then i couldn't remember what the name of the post where i posted it! Sorry.

I'm used to other blogs where after you post a response to something, it moves it to the front page where one can easily find it. Or did i miss something?

No problem.
If you want it displayed that way, click "Settings" above, then click "General Settings", then change "Thread Display Mode" to show newest posts first.
 

Givadogahome

Silver
Sep 27, 2011
4,397
2
0
it's a full-time job. it takes a consorted effort and we've been doing it for a long time now, but it's taxing, it's time consuming, and it requires a lot of energy, and quite frankly, some days, you just want to pull your hair out.

Hmm, sounds like working? Most jobs are all or at least most of the things you mention. There is the obvious option if understaffed!


Sorry I haven't read the entire post but I think I get the general gist, if I am way off then I apologize.
 

belmont

Bronze
Oct 9, 2009
1,536
10
0
You ask them nicely, "please stay out of the restaurant. Do you understand?"
"Yes, i understand."
"Thank you. Have a good day."
Then the manager turns around to take care of something else and when we turn back around, they're right back at the customers table.
We approach them again and ask them again: "I asked you to please stay out of the restaurant...you said that you understood, right?. why did you come back inside?"
"I don't know." is the typical answer.

Your posts indicate that you are an educated guy. Ever hear of Pavlov and his dogs, or Skinner and his rats? Psych 101 teaches for behaviour modification to be achieved there has to be either positive reinforcement or negative reinforcement. So either reward them or shock the sh*t out of them. Complaining about them isn't worth a damn.
 

DRob

Gold
Aug 15, 2007
8,234
594
113
Question: What happened when you hired a security guard? I'd imagine one or two neatly but-casually dressed guys (no uniforms or shotguns) would get the point across very quickly, esp. if they were off-duty politur.
 

frank12

Gold
Sep 6, 2011
11,847
29
48
DROb,

Thanks for the reply. Last year we hired a security guard and wow, what a blessing that was for four months! Unfortunately, even the security guard got exassperated by the situation and eventually gave up. we hired another one, he wasn't as good as policing the vendors as much as the first one, and eventually he gave up too. then summer came and there just hasn't been enough business to justify the cost of hiring another one until the tourists start arriving again. And the world turns.

Question: What happened when you hired a security guard? I'd imagine one or two neatly but-casually dressed guys (no uniforms or shotguns) would get the point across very quickly, esp. if they were off-duty politur.
 

CG

Bronze
Sep 16, 2004
984
146
63
Go have a drink or lunch at Nikki beach and ask them kindly.
 

SKing

Silver
Nov 22, 2007
3,750
183
63
Frank, sorry you're getting some pain in the a$$ responses here because I can't even imagine how frustrating that must be to try and run an establishment and getting harrassed left and right. I don't care if your prices are in the Guinness Book of World Records for "highest priced meals", your customers deserve to be able to eat in peace, and you all deserve to be able to do the job you're paid for without having to play security at the same time.
I empathize with you, and I don't know what advice I could give because honestly it seems completely out of control. Just wanted to let you know that not everyone thinks that your establishment deserves this because of your prices.
Hope you can get it resolved....if I'm ever in Cabarete, I will stop by for a meal (I'll even buy a gift certificate that you can keep behind the counter for the unfortunate expat that can't seem to afford your food)
:)

Good Luck!

SHALENA
 

cobraboy

Pro-Bono Demolition Hobbyist
Jul 24, 2004
40,964
936
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Make Sunday "Beach Vendor Taser Day" and let customers pay a few $$$ for the priviledge of pushing the button.

New revenue source.

Win win.

Da nada...
 

Ringo

On Vacation!
Mar 6, 2003
2,823
41
0
Make Sunday "Beach Vendor Taser Day" and let customers pay a few $$$ for the priviledge of pushing the button.

New revenue source.

Win win.

Da nada...

This MAY be your answer. You have a problem but can not figure out what to do with it. No one will help and your clients are running away.

Set up an area off to the side and let the vendors set up shop. Work with them and make one of them the leader of the vendors to control them. IF and since no one else will help, then YOU need to find your own answer, it may not be the one you want but it keeps you going and much more of a say then you have now.

Your clients can go see, as THEY wish. Perhaps a little coupon from some of the vendors? You now gain some control of YOUR place and provide a tourist thing and it becomes part of what you are.
 

zoomzx11

Gold
Jan 21, 2006
8,367
842
113
victimizers being victimized? Dont think you will get much sympathy here. We have all been victimized one time by your prices and poor quality food and watery beer. You guys own the whole neighborhood and cannot afford to hire a security guard. Who is fooling who?
 

beeza

Silver
Nov 2, 2006
3,479
731
113
Frank, sorry you're getting some pain in the a$$ responses here because I can't even imagine how frustrating that must be to try and run an establishment and getting harrassed left and right. I don't care if your prices are in the Guinness Book of World Records for "highest priced meals", your customers deserve to be able to eat in peace, and you all deserve to be able to do the job you're paid for without having to play security at the same time.
I empathize with you, and I don't know what advice I could give because honestly it seems completely out of control. Just wanted to let you know that not everyone thinks that your establishment deserves this because of your prices.
Hope you can get it resolved....if I'm ever in Cabarete, I will stop by for a meal (I'll even buy a gift certificate that you can keep behind the counter for the unfortunate expat that can't seem to afford your food)
:)

Good Luck!

SHALENA

Apologies if you thought mine was a pain in the a$$ reply Shalena, but I have a theory that maybe it's their prices that is attracting this unwanted attention.

I live in Cabarete and we like to dine on Cabarete beach regularly. However myself and ALL of my expat friends do not frequent Jose O'Shays. They seem to have a unique business model that caters for tourists only. They are by far the most expensive bar/restaurant on the beach and the quality is only so-so. Maybe they should offer an alternative tariff for patrons with a cedula.

I recall the last time we went there was for breakfast. Four breakfasts with coffee and orange juice ran to over a hundred dollars!

We go to Nikki beach, Miro's, Papi's, Lax, Onno's and yes we do get the occasional beach vendor, but I wouldn't go as far to say that they are a pain. A casual "Gracias" and they are on their way with a smile.

O'Shay's is an easy target for gullible tourists!
 
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