Slow start at Richmond’s new Mobile Vendor Plaza has food sellers worried

When Karla Martinez heard about Richmond’s new Mobile Vendor Program, which allows vendors to set up shop in four markets per week, she hoped it could help her support her family. Martinez had cleaned houses in Richmond before the pandemic but lost many of her clients to financial hardship. She wanted to work in food, so she purchased $1,000 worth of cooktops, restaurant supplies and ingredients to set up her tent selling pupusas and hotdogs. 

But after nearly two months at Richmond’s new Mobile Vendor Plaza, a city initiative which operates on Thursdays and Saturdays in a parking lot adjacent to the Richmond BART garage, Martinez said she made less than $500 total, even though she set up twice a week. On a sunny Saturday in November, only two customers had come by for her $3.50 pupusas before 1:30 p.m.

She had hoped to use the money she made from the plaza to update her home kitchen so that it complies with food safety requirements. Instead, she is struggling to break even. 

“I have been waiting for 15 years for this opportunity. I have been waiting for so long,” Martinez said. “I like to cook, and I want to sell food, doing these things right.” 

City Councilmember Cesar Zepeda and others have heralded the vendor program, which includes a streamlined permitting process, as an innovative solution to unpermitted street vending, which has frustrated some business owners in Richmond. However, many vendors taking part in the program say there are not enough customers to keep them afloat in the long term. 

Over the course of two lunchtime hours on that November Saturday, less than 20 customers visited the seven booths in the Mobile Vendor Plaza that were selling jerk chicken, funnel cakes, garlic noodles, flautas and more. Vendors hoped an event across Macdonald Avenue would attract more customers later in the day. 

In July, Richmond cracked down on unpermitted sidewalk vendors in response to complaints from local businesses and residents concerned about health and safety standards. The city requires vendors to obtain permits and conduct business in designated areas only. Vendors who violate these rules could face fines of up to $1,000 per violation. 

“Now it is basically illegal to sell on the street,” Aaron Coleman, who manages the Richmond Farmers Markets as well as the Mobile Vendor Plaza, said. “We’ve got to provide them a place, and Richmond is the only city that I know of that did that.” 

The plaza, which is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., has space for at least 30 booths. Twelve vendors have committed to coming consistently, though they are not required to come every week. They operate under canopies provided by the vendors, with bug screens and cooking equipment — fryers, stovetops, smokers. A health inspector regularly visits to check that vendors are preparing food on site, that cooking spaces are clean and that cooktops are at sufficient temperatures.

Tables and chairs, shaded by canopies, allows visitors to enjoy their meals on site. The plaza operates rain or shine. 

Coleman said the city hopes to include more food vendors, crafts people and possibly live music in the future to enhance the experience. 

“The trends and the culture all has to be created here. It takes two years to plan a market like this. This was done in months,” Coleman said.

The Marina Bay Farmers Market, which Coleman has managed since it opened in April, also got a slow start but has grown to two dozen vendors and around 400 customers on a typical Sunday. Vendors in the Mobile Vendor Program are also invited to sell at the Marina Bay and downtown farmers markets.

A parklet and a smoker have created an uproar in Point Richmond, where pub owner says the city did an about-face on his permits