Vendor Business

Have you called DLCA?
Dept. of Licensing and Consumer Affairs?

What kind/size tents are you considering?
For what/type size events?
Ronnie Lockhart already has this type of business here in STT.

I've looked at the website DLCA and I'm not seeing the type of vendor business I am considering. From my research so far, some events like Christmas Village in Frederiksted a permit is required and a business license is needed to apply for a permit. Having traveled extensively in the Caribbean, I have come across folks set up as vendors with tents (10'x10'). I can't imagine they have formal businesses organized.

Best do some more research and contact DLCA.

In order to have a mobile, tent business in the VI you need an Itinerant Vendors License from DLCA. You can apply for it online. A Tax Clearance Letter from VI Internal Revenue Bureau is required as part of your license application. You are required to get a tax clearance every time you renew your license, I think.

A license is required for most events that offer spaces for vendors plus whoever is offering spaces usually charges a fee for the space. You can also set up on private property if you get permission, but technically, you are not supposed to have a permanent location, because that would require a retail license.

Nobody can get a spot in the tented Vendors Plaza on St Thomas, because there are no openings. When someone with a spot dies, a family member usually takes it over.

The license is good on all the islands.

And...we have no sales tax to collect but you'll pay the 5% gross receipts tax if your sales and over a certain amount each year.

Great info, thanks for taking the time to answer this question.

Very helpful.

Unless you know somebody, no one gets a permit to add a space or take over a space on any designated vendor space for cruise ships etc. There are years of people trying but unfortunately as I said it is who you know.

Unless my bartender has some pull, I guess I got nothing. With that said, I am an avid cruiser and very familiar with designated areas that bow to the cruise ship companies and the price to pay to be on the ship's recommended shopping locations. Everywhere I've been has those folks who set up their own tables and tents and do their own thing. That's what I am contemplating. That and non-cruise ship events on the island. I just want to be sure to do it legally. Aside from the legal aspect of things I worry about how current vendors feel about competition. That will be interesting to see.

Most other islands make it easier for local vendors to operate, and most have more vendors than we have near our cruise ports. Our vendors are given designated spots on govt property.

You can definitely do events if you're licensed.

STX doesn't get much cruise ship business compared to STT.
STT has designated vendor locations and you'll probably never get
a spot because it's exceedingly poorly run by DLCA and what happens is if someone has a spot, they can rent it to the highest bidder, while paying little to nothing for it. That person usually sells a lot of crap made in China and t-shirts that will fail apart after a couple washings. The entire Vendors Plaza is in my mind is shoddy, poorly run and organized, not to mention an unsightly mess. It needs complete restructuring or to be dismantled.