So I run a very small gift shop in a town which is mostly financially supported by travelers/tourists. I hand make a lot of my items, and have built the business up from nothing. My friend however stops through when she is in this part of the state. She travels full time in a bus, so she carries all of her goods and such with her. But she only rolls through during major holidays and times when business is at its best. When she stops through she places all of her inventory in front of my place, and attempts to pull my customers in before they even get to my entrance. I don’t want to be greedy, or discouraged her from making and selling souvenirs and whatnot. But I rely on my income from my shop to support me. How should I handle this situation? Should I just let it go and lose 2 weeks of typical income? Or should I ask her to move away from my store front? I’ve spent a significant amount of time landscaping and making it eye catching, and I feel like she is taking advantage of the hard work I’ve done, and attempting to give the impression that it’s her place. I don’t know what to do, honestly.
Are there any code enforcement issues that could be reported? You could either call code enforcement to remove her if she doesn’t have a permit. Let the city move her. Or the passive aggressive way of doing it is call her before she arrives and tell her some jerk reported your business to the cops for allowing people to setup outside your shop and you’ve been warned that you will get a fine the next time it happens.
Now if there are other shops with people in front then that will negate that bluff. At that point you just need to tell the person before they arrive that you need your “shop space opened up this season because sales were slow, unfortunately you wont be able to setup in front this year…”