(a) When used in this section the terms “hawker” and “peddler” means and includes all persons who engage or conduct, within the Town of Eleanor, in traveling from place to place within the state, a temporary or transit business of selling goods, wares or merchandise for delivery at the time of sale, and who, for the purpose of carrying on such business may use, lease, or occupy either in whole or in part, a shed or sheds, open ground, streets, roads or highways, a room, building or other structure or who use, lease or occupy for such purpose a room in any hotel or lodging house, for the exhibition and sale of goods, wares, and merchandise; or any person who shall carry goods, wares, or merchandise from place to place on foot or with a vehicle, either in person or by agent or employee, and sell, for delivery at the same time, any goods, wares, or merchandise to any purchaser at wholesale or retail, and any person who shall solicit for the purpose of rendering any service shall be deemed a hawker and peddler under this section. The person so engaged shall not be relieved from the provisions of this section by reason of association temporarily with any local dealer, trader, merchant or auctioneer, or by conducting such temporary or transient business in connection with or as part of the business of, or in the name of any local dealer, trader, merchant or auctioneer.
The annual license fee to act as a hawker and peddler, if the person licensed travels without a vehicle, shall be ten dollars; if he travels with a vehicle the annual license fee shall be fifteen dollars ($15.00); and the person licensed shall pay at the same rate for each and every vehicle used. Such person shall carry his license in some conspicuous place in his vehicle or about his pack.
(b) The provisions of this section shall not apply to any person who sells any goods, wares, or merchandise to be delivered in the future; or to any of the following who offer immediate delivery of the goods, wares, or merchandise being sold:
(1) Any person or persons engaged within this State in the business or calling of agriculture, horticulture or grazing, who sells or sell individually or collectively, one or more for the other or others, the products derived from his or their business or calling aforesaid.
(2) Any retail or wholesale business concern, established and operating continuously for one year or more within the State in the sale of any product or products over regular routes who are licensed under other provisions of this article.
(3) Any wholesaler or jobber selling soft drinks or nonintoxicating beer for which he is duly licensed under other provisions of this or another article.
(4) Any person who sells petroleum products, ice, wood, meat, ice cream, dairy products, bread, cakes, pies and other bakery products, butter and eggs, manufactured, grown or produced by any such person and not purchased by him for resale.
(5) Sales made to persons by commercial travelers, or selling agents in the usual course of business, not to bona fide sales of goods, wares or merchandise by sample for future delivery; nor to any sales of goods, wares or merchandise on the grounds of any agricultural association during the continuance of any annual fair held by such association, nor to any sales by organizations acting for charitable, religious or benevolent purposes; nor to annual showings or street exhibits, which may include sales of their showings or exhibits conducted by members of art associations; numismatic or philatelic societies or antique associations or societies when such showings or exhibits do not continue for more than one week each year; not to judicial sales directed by law, or under the orders of any court.
(6) Any agent or salesman selling manufactured products produced by his employer, and who sells the same to retail dealers for the purpose of resale.
(7) Any firm, corporation, or individual having a stock of goods, or merchandise, or manufacturing or processing plant or plants kept or operating at a fixed site in the State of West Virginia, and declared for taxation in the county where located, and using a vehicle or vehicles over a fixed route or routes for the purpose of selling or distributing at wholesale, their, his or its said merchandise, stock of goods or plant products.
(c) Any person who is exempt from the payment of any license fee under this section, as above provided, shall obtain from the Recorder, a license receipt, without cost, showing that he is so exempt, and which shall run a period of one year after the issuance thereof; but to obtain such license receipt he shall make an affidavit as to the facts entitling him to such exemption on a form to be prescribed by the Recorder.
(d) Any licensed hawker or peddler who shall be guilty of any fraud, cheating or misrepresentation, whether through himself or through an employee, while acting as a peddler in the Town of Eleanor, or who shall barter, sell, or peddle any goods or merchandise, or wares other than those specified in his application for a license shall be deemed guilty of a violation of this section.
(Ord. 97-1. Passed 5-15-97.)