Four moves, a neighbour complaint, excessive signage, new road marking and cycle lanes have all created a bit of a problem for Napier's mobile street vendors on Kennedy Rd - and now the council has clamped down.
At different times of the day there may be two fruit stalls, a coffee cart, a sushi-seller and a key cutter spread along a busy stretch of the road, just metres past the Taradale Rd-Kennedy Rd-Islington Place roundabout.
The numbers of vendors come and go as the seasonal produce varies.
And the Napier City Council regulatory committee has raised concerns over the quantity and size of their advertising signage.
Councillor Kathie Furlong said the vendors needed to operate in a manner that was not a danger or distraction.
They will now be required, by condition of their licence, to display no more than two signs which are to have a maximum aggregate size of two square metres.
The vendors have been made to move several times, after starting out further down Kennedy Rd.
When cycle lanes were laid they moved to the parking bay in Anderson Park.
When parking was restricted along Kennedy Rd and they had to free up the public parking space, they moved across the road, where they set up shop under the trees.
After conflict with a neighbour over a noisy generator, they were instructed to move off and keep within the 1.5m-wide roadside verge, where they are now.
The owner of the Taste of Hawke's Bay fruit stall, Nigel Wilson, said signs needed to be big enough for people to be able to read them from a distance.
Although there had been an issue in the past when they had been spread out, it had improved since the vendors had been moved to the roadside. It wasn't the best spot, because they were taking up parking space, he said, and he had raised concerns about safety with the council, but so far it had been okay.
"If everybody uses a bit of common sense and discretion it will work," he said, adding it would be better if the number of vendors was restricted to two or three and they were allowed back up on the reserve.
Another vendor spoken to said "being down here is not as safe as being up there". It was a busy road and people tended to be "a bit loose with parking".
Mr Wilson, who also runs market gardens, said the service was tourism driven.
"We are trying to promote the freshness and seasonality of Hawke's Bay - it's good for everybody, including the tourist and an important part of the city.
"Apart from supermarket chains, where else do they go to buy, there's hardly any gate sales any more - it adds a nice little dimension to the city."
The vendors spoken to said it was a popular stop and they had a lot of support. If they were closed down there would be a public outcry.