HoumaToday - Open-air shrimp market a big success -
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Published on: 8/26/2002
Last Visited: 8/26/2002
The fisherman's market was a first in modern times for Houma and for store owner Vincent Cannata Jr. who waived any profit in favor of helping struggling fishermen whose product fetches far less at local docks and processing houses, due to a tidal wave of low-priced overseas imports.
"We're trying to help then out of this," said Cannata, who was moved by Courier stories of shrimpers close to losing houses and cars during a slack season with no price."Hopefully this won't last forever, it will be a temporary period, but to ignore it at this time will be something we can never undo."
An estimated $6,000 worth of shrimp – more than one ton – was sold between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Saturday, from a long counter made of folding tables set beneath the store's parapet, where Cannata's employees rang sales on a cash register -- including requisite taxes -- as shrimpers shoveled and stacked silvery mounds of Louisiana white shrimp into consumer's coolers.
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Cannata fretted over the initial low turnout, concerned that what he saw as a good deed could turn sour if potential customers clutching hand-written numbers to indicate places in line grew unsatisfied.Standing on a trailer loaded with huge gray ice bins -- donated by the P&P Shrimp Company in Montegut, the grocer said he was reminded of stories about his father's early days at the New Orleans French Market, where fresh meats, fish and produce were often sold harvester to customer direct.
The taxman calleth
Kermit Sneeze, a retired medical assistant, was among those who said he did not mind waiting.
"If time was money I'd be a millionaire," said Sneeze, who said the scene reminded him of food lines during World War II, when ration tickets were required.
Time was something the Terrebonne Parish tax office wasted not, after employees learned of Cannata's plans, published in Friday's Courier.Cannata said he assured officials that the law would be followed; although not aware of any requirements that he do so, the grocer had employees pressure wash and sanitize the area where sales were made before customers arrived, a process repeated at the close of business.
Saturday was marked by trial and error, for customers, the grocer and shrimpers.For Darlene Bergeron's family, the problem was transporting shrimp from their Dulac boat to the store.After locating a suitable saltbox and a pickup to haul it in, shrimp had to be off-loaded in Dulac before the trip up Grand Caillou Road.
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The demand for shrimp was so high that some fishermen were swamped by customers before they ever got a chance to talk with Cannata, or set up their place in line for selling.
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The scarcity of decent sized white shrimp, fishermen say, is frightening this year when coupled with low prices, which is why those who came to Cannata's were so happy to be selling direct.
Cannata questioned Eschete's reasoning, noting that he himself was losing meat sales to direct-sold shrimp, not to mention sales of shrimp already in his showcases that would not be purchased.
"We took our lumps too," said Cannata, who plans to hold another fisherman's market again Saturday at 9 a.m. at the east-side store."We just want to help these guys out and it will all work out in the long run.People can't spend money in our stores if they don't have money in their pockets, and if they can't sell shrimp at a price that can cover their expenses they've got no money to spend for anybody's goods."
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