NEW ORLEANS— Finally our Vieux Carre’ is starting to see some daytime activity, with folks out enjoying the weather.
But for the hundred or so vendors in the French Market, things are slow, but picking up.
Abdoulaye Gueye is an African Art Dealer and he says, “Its not like good, good business, you know what I mean? We just started an we see a few people coming over, you know?”
Vendors have been coming back to the market since mid-summer and during our Sunday morning stroll, we noticed some shoppers, offering a glimmer of hope to the vendors, even if things are slow right now.
Long time t-shirt Vendor Dana Tharp said, “It’s worth coming out, but it’s about a third of the business I had before the pandemic on this same day last year in October.”
The good news is that we can all make a weekend day trip to head over to the market, and the sparse crowds make it easier to social distance from other.
Tharp said that this recovery calls to mind another time when people in the region and locals helped them get back on their feet.
According to Tharp, this reminds me of after Katrina when we had so many people coming from Texas, and Alabama, and Florida driving in. A lot of drive-in traffic. It helped us out then, and it’s helping out now too.”
The French Market vendors are on location Thursday through Sunday.