Scattered rain periodically washed the tourists and street vendors off of Canal Street on Tuesday afternoon. At every reprieve, the two groups re-emerged to haggle over bags, wallets, watches and jewelry.
Rain notwithstanding, business is bad this season, said Jikhaje Oma, a Malian street vendor who was selling knockoff Fendi bags for the same price that he sold last-minute umbrellas.
Oma was the only vendor of several approached by Gothamist who would give his name, given the recent federal immigration raid — which administration officials described as a crackdown on counterfeit merchandise sales in Chinatown — that led to multiple arrests and widespread protest. But he and four others said this holiday season’s business was worse than in previous years.
Year-round tourism this year is effectively flat over last 2024, according to New York City tourism officials, with a modest projected uptick in holiday season visitors. And while traditional retail spending this season is up 3.9% nationwide over last year, with spending on apparel growing nearly 8%, value-conscious shoppers stung by higher prices are looking for deals, according to a Mastercard spending report that is widely considered a barometer of holiday activity.
A good deal wasn’t enough to entice Argentinian tourist Christina Tarantino, who stopped to examine a knockoff Louis Vuitton clutch being sold for $8.
“I have the real one,” Tarantino said. “And this one is horrible, the quality. Eight dollars! What?”
A few blocks east, Tay Lujan found better options. The twentysomething was in town from Worcester, Massachusetts, to pick up Peruvian-style panettone from her family’s favorite spot in Paterson, New Jersey’s Little Lima section. She ended up here almost by accident after first learning about the Canal Street markets on TikTok, where videos of shoppers discussing their strategies and posting their hauls have recently exploded in popularity.
“I just happened to be on the train and I saw that one of the stops was Canal,” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh, Canal. The Canal?’ So I came up.”
Lujan was looking for a watch for her father, but decided shopping for others was too complicated after showing him options via FaceTime. Instead, she bought herself a powder blue women’s “Rolex” encircled with “diamonds” after talking the seller down from $95 to $70.
Despite the depressed commerce the vendors described, some local residents claim that the street crowding and illegal sales activity are only increasing.
Pam Frederick, who runs the popular local news website Tribeca Citizen, ran a post last week titled “Counterfeit sales on Broadway are worse than ever.”
“I got about eight emails the day that I also walked by, and it was the densest I’ve ever seen,” Frederick said on a phone call.
“Everyone was like ‘Oh my God, it’s the worst it’s ever been,’” Frederick said. “But we all say that every season.”