{"id":3106,"date":"2019-10-07T19:47:43","date_gmt":"2019-10-07T19:47:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=3106"},"modified":"2019-10-07T19:47:46","modified_gmt":"2019-10-07T19:47:46","slug":"ben-dung-still-active-but-fewer-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=3106","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Ben Dung\u2019 still active but fewer sales"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Several decades ago,\n\u2018Ben Dung\u2019, located in the Charles Gordon Market in Montego Bay, was the place\nmany people would go to get some of the latest name brand and fashionable\nclothing at reasonable prices.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Several stalls decked with colourful clothing for men, women\nand children offered top quality clothing for as little as fifty Jamaican\ndollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Persons could carry at least two thousand dollars to shop\nand leave with a large quantity of clothing and shoes. But now, things have\nchanged, as that is no longer possible as two thousand dollars can barely\npurchase a lone item.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018Ben Dung\u2019 vendors mostly operated from Thursday to Saturday\nof each week to meet the shoppers\u2019 need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many of the vendors are now complaining that business is not\nthe same as before, due to the many cheap Chinese-made clothing that is now\nbeing sold on the streets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sharon Carty, who has been operating from the market for\nover 18 years, shared: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cFirst time business was nice, but now, people can hardly\ncome here again to shop; but every week the Parish Council people come to\ncollect rent, but there is no business here; the place needs to be upgraded and\nsome more promotions put in place to make people know we are still here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We sell clothing for as little as 50 dollars and things are\nstill slow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When asked if people thought the clothes are mainly \u2018dead\nlef\u2019 clothing\u2019, she was quick to rubbish those claims, as she said she has\nplaces in the USA where she goes to purchase her clothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>GRATEFUL<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another vendor, Paulette Lewis, said: \u201cBusiness is up and\ndown so far,\u201d but if she makes a thousand dollars, she is OK. \u201cI give thanks\nfor what I make here on a daily basis, I don&#8217;t give people money to put down,\nso, I have to be grateful for whoever comes to shop. I am here 21 years and\nstill surviving. I know these times are slow, so I wait until its November,\nDecember time, when things pick up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She then showed us some of the name brand shoes she has for\nsale on her stall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another vendor, who wished not to be named, said, \u201cThe\nsidewalk needs to be clear so that the people can come into the market and\nshop. People are stopping on the street so we are lost. It\u2019s the tradition\npeople who know about Ben Dung who keep coming here to shop. Not because we are\ncheap, we also sell name brand clothing and shoes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Several decades ago, \u2018Ben Dung\u2019, located in the Charles Gordon Market in Montego Bay, was the place many people would go to get some of the latest name brand and fashionable clothing at reasonable prices. Several stalls decked with colourful clothing for men, women and children offered top quality clothing for as little as fifty [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2],"tags":[1596,172,19,1123,30],"class_list":["post-3106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-feature","category-news","tag-ben-dung","tag-charles-gordon-market","tag-montego-bay","tag-st-james-parish-council","tag-western-jamaica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3108,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3106\/revisions\/3108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}