Business in downtown Port of Spain was virtually non-existent yesterday, as the number of roadside vendors and stores which opened for business far surpassed the number of people shopping as the Fifth Summit of the Americas kicked off.

Charlotte Street buzzed with vendors who set up shop from early in the morning, but even as store owners threw their doors open, sales clerks standing in place ready to serve them found that they had no customers.

’I’m out here but so far no one has bought anything yet. I’m hoping to get a few sales as the day goes on but I’ll have to wait and see,’ one vendor said.

One owner of a mobile phone stall on Charlotte Street said she had sold a Samsung phone before 10 a.m. and was hoping to have a lot more sales as the day wore on.

Further west along Queen Street, most of the stores remained closed, save for a shoe store and a few cloth stores. Checks inside these stores found that the only activity taking place were that of the sales clerks folding and wrapping cloth. The same was also true for most stores located on Henry Street.

Most if not all of the people in the sports store, the bookstore and the three clothing stores were employees standing guard at the entrances and aisles seemingly hoping for a sale.

Lower down on Henry Street, both entrances to Aboutique Mall were locked but the door to Golden Doors Plaza was open to pedestrian traffic-which was almost zero-although most of the stores in the walk-through mall remained closed.

All entrances to the Excellent City Centre on Frederick Street were opened to allow for business operations, but not many businesses in the mall were opened in anticipation of a slow day.

A visit to the food court upstairs the mall found 95 per cent of the tables vacant and attendants who had lots of time on their hands folding cutlery, as the usual long lines of people were absent. One or two customers ordered food at the three out of seven booths which chose to open, but managers described sales as very, very slow.

’It’s lunch time now on a Friday; usually this place is full but we haven’t had a customer yet for the morning,’ one woman said.

Sales at the food court located at Town Centre Mall were also severely affected and some workers at one stall said they opted to have their salary for this week paid Monday instead of today.

’That is how bad it has been. We told our boss we would take our pay on Monday because all of the food you see there, that is what we cooked and that is what we still have. We will have to freeze it but we aren’t selling tomorrow because the mall is closed tomorrow,’ the woman said.

A manager at one of the more popular food stalls at the mall said they decided to open because they did not believe they would have been badly affected.

’Business is very bad, but we came out today because we didn’t believe that we would be this affected because Frederick Street is not in any of the zones,’ he said.

Stores on Frederick Street were also empty except for their employees, who paced the floors looking anxiously at those who passed by, hoping someone would walk in so they would have something to do.

In a telephone interview yesterday afternoon, president of the Downtown Owners and Merchants Association, Gregory Aboud, said though business was slow as was expected, businesses owners felt it was worth opening.

’About 60 per cent of the businesses in downtown opened today. Most reported a full turnout of staff and several reported that although business volume was significantly reduced that it had been worth the while to come into Port of Spain today,’ he said.