Art edict
New council, guidelines at Earl's

Artisan and vendor Ron Portley sits at a booth where he sells his goods at Earl's Restaurant Tuesday. Portley is part of a newly-formed commitee through the Council for Indigenous Arts and Culture that will help monitor the authenticity of goods and relay vendors' concerns to the council. — © 2009 Gallup Independent / Cable Hoover

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Bill Donovan
Independent correspondent

GALLUP — In the beginning some 40 years ago, vendors selling crafts at Earls had to follow only one rule — no selling of imports.

But over the years as the number of vendors grew from just a handful to more than 700 today, the rules also grew and inspectors were appointed to help make sure the rules were followed.

So with more rules and more inspectors, it should come as no surprise that some vendors would start complaining about being treated unfairly, which was why Ralph Richards, co-owner of the restaurant, was meeting on a Monday afternoon recently with more than 80 of the vendors to listen to their complaints.

At the same time, Richards was presenting a written list of the rules to the vendors for approval. The list of rules and penalties — ranging from suspensions to permanent removal — has now grown to three pages.

While he stated the reasoning behind the rules, several of the vendors in the audience took the opportunity to vent against some of the inspectors, who were called arbitrary and overbearing, In one case, a vendor said one of the inspectors was “nice when he was alone but mean when he was with his wife.”

Many of the complaints centered around inspectors forcing them to leave the restaurant for a violation of the rules but not giving them a chance to give their side.

For example, Manual Brieno, a non-Native married to a Native craftswoman, was told to shut down his table at Earl’s one Saturday because he was caught selling to a customer.

Richards said that at a meeting of the vendors recently, they all agreed not to allow non-Natives to sell at the restaurant.

But Brieno pointed out that he was just watching the table for a couple of minutes while his wife, who was five months pregnant, took a rest room break. Someone came up an wanted to buy something so he sold it.

“Every sale is important,” he said.

Many of the other complaints brought up at the meeting were similar — inspectors refusing to listen and just using their power to remove vendors. In a couple of cases, Richards said, the argument between the inspector and the vendor became loud and caused a disruption in the restaurant, something Richards said he would not tolerate.

But he said he realized that vendors had a right to be heard and he has decided to set up a committee, made up of vendors and inspectors, to hear complaints from vendors about alleged mistreatment by inspectors or problems they have with the program. The committee, he said, would meet once a month and address any written complaints that are submitted.

At first, he proposed that the committee be made up of 10 people, seven vendors and two inspectors as well as Tony Eriacho Jr., the head of the vendor training program. Eriacho would only vote if there was a tie, Richards said.

But during the meeting 12 vendors volunteered to be on the committee so Richards agreed to have a 15-member committee with all of the volunteers on it.

Another complaint that came up during the meeting was what happened to all of the money the vendors paid as membership fees.

Vendors paid $20 a year for membership in the vendors group, which gives them the right to sell at Earl’s and get a membership card.

Richards said the fund currently has $983 in it and that is was used to pay for the expenses that come up with overseeing the program, such as the preparation of membership cards, printing of the rules, etc.

But some of the vendors questioned this, asking that an audit needs be done of the books and Richards said the vendor committee could take this up if they wanted and if they decided an audit was needed, one would be done.

A lot of time was spent at the meeting discussing the various rules, and Richards stressed that if the vendor program was going to work, the vendors would have to work with the management at Earls’ to make sure that the restaurant’s customers are treated fairly. If they aren’t, he said, he would lose a customer and the vendors would lose a potential future sale.

For example, he said he would not tolerate vendors going to an import shop, buying pieces of jewelry for $5 each and coming back to Earl’s and selling them for $60. If craftspeople purchased beads or any other product, they would have to do something to that product to make it their design; otherwise, they couldn’t sell it at Earl’s.

He also advised craftspeople to be more careful about charging too little for their product. Selling something for less than the market value just made it harder for other vendors, he said.

“If the retail value of a product is $80, start there and negotiate down to $60,” he said.

When the issue of wearing appropriate clothing came up by one of the vendors, Richards said that women vendors shouldn’t wear clothing that showed off a lot of their breasts, even though it may help sales.

“Remember, we are a family restaurant,” he said. In the same regard, he said he didn’t want vendors showing up with hickeys because it was inappropriate for his type of restaurant.

Richards also stressed that it was important for the vendors to have business cards to pass out to customers, even if they are the cheap kind that can be made with a computer.

This allows customers to be able to contact the vendor if they wanted to buy more of their product and it also provided Earl’s with information on who sold the product if the buyer came back later to complain.

A lot of discussion was also given to who should be allowed to set up their wares on tables outside the restaurant. This is apparently more lucrative than just going inside the restaurant and selling one’s wares.

In the past, the policy was first come first serve, which meant that people had to get to the restaurant as early as 4 a.m. to make sure they would have one of the 15 tables.

Richards said he is going to try a pilot program for a month by which the tables would be assigned through a lottery system so that vendors wouldn’t have to come in early.

Tables would be limited to 3 by 3s and he said he would have a couple on hand for those who don’t bring one. He stressed, however, that people who win the lottery and say they are going to be there had better do so or risk having their names taken off the lottery list in the future.

At the end of the meeting, Richards said he felt that the changes would clear up many of the problems that have come up with the program recently, adding that the program has proved to be beneficial to both the restaurant and to the vendors. It’s also been one of the main reasons why Earl’s has managed to become a dominant restaurant in this area for the past four decades.

And it’s the reason why craftswoman like Irene Reano, a member of the Santo Domingo Pueblo, has been coming to Gallup for the past 35 years to sell her wares at Earl’s. She was one of the first craftswoman to sell their wares at the old Earl’s Restaurant, she said.

She was also one of the most vocal critics of the program at the meeting, saying that she felt that the attitude of the inspectors to ignore attempts by vendors to give their side of the story was a violation of their freedom of speech rights.

She’s not sure that the so-called grievance committee idea will work, mainly because of the power that the inspectors have in the program, but she and other vendors indicated that they are willing to give it a try.