by Idil Abshir
After Thanksgiving people often feel rejuvenated, ready to power through to Christmas. For food cart vendors however, the days after the turkey and dressing, cranberry and pies, signal one thing: bad business.
Sam Dib, a coffee and donut vendor on Atlantic Avenue and Pacific streets, says that he doesn’t really get customers until the new year. “Until maybe January 15,” he said.
Another vendor, Ziyad Khan, who was set up half a block away, said that in the days between Thanksgiving week and December 1, he gets practically no business at all. “Last week was very slow,” said Khan, “and this week too.”
They stood in their carts, silently waiting for people to emerge from an approaching train. Khan had all his food and condiments lined up, but he got no takers. Dib talked to a taxi driver, their conversation interrupted as the taxi driver repeatedly offered his services to passers by.
”We don’t know what will happen, but we wait,” said Dib. “It will get better next year.”
Khan is an optimist, too. “The food will continue to sell. It is slow, but we will make something,” he said. “People have to eat. They can’t starve.”
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