[Ord. 2016-542; Ord. 2012-332 (part); Ord. 82-158 § 38; Ord. 79-1203 § 4 (part); prior code § 14-104 (part)]
A. 
Retailer or Grocer. No person shall engage in or conduct any business as a retailer or grocer without first having procured a retail license. For the purposes of this section "retailer" means every person engaged in the business of selling tangible personal property to the ultimate consumer.
Retailer does not include the following:
1. 
Furnishing of utilities including: gas, electricity, water communication service
2. 
Tickets or admission to places of amusement or athletic events.
3. 
Businesses where retail sales is a minimal part of overall business revenue. These business types include: bars, restaurants, taverns, clubs, food services, salons, barbershops, nail shops, tattoo and massage parlors and mortuaries.
B. 
Transient Merchants. No person shall engage in transient sales covered by this chapter without first having obtained a transient merchant license as required by this chapter. Transient merchant provisions shall not apply to, and no transient merchant license is required by the City for:
1. 
Persons selling or offering for sale, tangible personal property or services as a fundraising tool in connection with an educational or religious institution, a national or state-wide social, patriotic, recreational or benevolent organization;
2. 
Persons selling at wholesale to retail merchants for the purpose of resale;
3. 
Persons selling or distributing newspapers;
4. 
Persons selling tangible personal property or services to business enterprises only;
5. 
Persons who sell or offer for sale, from their residence in the City, works of art or handcrafts created or made by such person or a member of their immediate family;
6. 
Persons licensed by the state to sell real estate, insurance or as transient vendors of pharmaceuticals;
7. 
Persons selling or distributing livestock feeds as defined by state law;
8. 
Persons selling or delivering tangible personal property or services through a permanent business licensed by the City;
9. 
Persons selling or offering for sale, tangible personal property or services at an event for which a blanket transient merchant license has been issued;
10. 
Persons selling or offering for sale home grown fruits and vegetables;
11. 
Persons selling or offering for sale tangible personal property at a garage or yard sale conducted at the residence of a person offering tangible personal property at such sale;
12. 
Persons conducting and selling admissions to theatricals, shows, rides, sporting events and games, concerts, circuses, carnivals or other, similar public amusements where no sales of other products not related to the public amusement are made or offered;
13. 
Persons selling or offering for sale food and/or beverages to or for a food service establishment licensed by the state.
Any person going door-to-door while engaged in any of the activities listed in subsection B1 through 13 shall at all times comply with the restrictions contained in subsections 5.17.030C and D and may be cited for violations thereof.
[Ord. 2012-332 (part)]
For the purpose of this chapter, certain terms, words and phrases are defined as set forth in this section unless a different meaning is clearly intended in a given context.
A. 
RESIDENCE – Means every separate dwelling or living unit occupied for residential purposes located within any type of building or structure.
B. 
TRANSIENT MERCHANT – Means any person who:
1. 
Sells or offers for sale tangible personal property or personal services; or
2. 
Takes or attempts to take orders for the sale of tangible personal property, personal services, advertising or subscriptions to be delivered, furnished or performed at a future time; or
3. 
Solicits or attempts to solicit funds; and
4. 
Does not maintain or intend to maintain a permanent business address located within the City for a period of one year or more (permanent business address does not include a post office box address).
[Ord. 2012-332 (part)]
A. 
No person shall engage in activities regulated by this chapter on public property without first procuring written authorization from the appropriate governing body. Public property includes public streets, alleys, rights-of-way, sidewalks, parks and publicly owned property.
B. 
No person shall shout or use any sound amplification device for the purpose of attracting attention to one's self, or one's goods and merchandise or services, upon any of the public places of the City or upon any private premises in the City where sound of sufficient volume is emitted or produced to be capable of being plainly heard from a distance of 50 feet or more.
C. 
No person, whether required to obtain a license hereunder or not, shall engage in the activities regulated by this chapter at any residence or business establishment in defiance of any posted notice indicating that peddlers, solicitors or transient merchants are prohibited or not welcome.
D. 
No person shall engage in the activities regulated by this chapter and in so doing go from door to door in any residential area prior to 9:00 a.m., or after 6:30 p.m., on any weekday or Saturday. No person shall engage in the activities regulated by this chapter on Sunday or on a national holiday.
E. 
No person shall, within 1,000 feet of any existing, nontransient business, sell or offer for sale similar tangible personal property as that of the nontransient business. This prohibition does not apply to a transient merchant operating under a blanket transient merchant license where business is conducted entirely within an enclosed building.
F. 
No transient merchant shall engage in business at a location without the written permission, by lease or otherwise, of the owner or person in possession of the property. Such written authorization must be signed by the parties and shall state the dates for which the transient merchant may use the location. Such written authorization must be displayed by the transient merchant at all times.
G. 
There shall be a minimum of four off-street parking spaces designated for the use of a transient merchant's customers and employees at any fixed location.
H. 
Any display of tangible personal property offered for sale and any signs or advertising shall be at least 15 feet from the public right-of-way. Signs must comply with Title 17 of the Davenport Municipal Code.
[Amended 12-4-2019 by Ord. No. 2019-530]
I. 
Each transient merchant who is required to obtain a license under this chapter and all employees operating thereunder who go door to door shall, at all times while conducting business, keep in his or her possession a copy of the transient merchant license and shall display the license to any person with whom they are offering their goods, merchandise or service, or to any law enforcement officer or enforcement officer of the City, immediately upon demand.
J. 
The owner or person in control of any real property located within the City upon which a permanent building is located, or any person using public property with the City's authorization, may procure a blanket transient merchant license on behalf of all transient merchants who will be engaged in activities regulated by this chapter on the owner's or person in control's property or on said public property with the City's authorization under the following conditions: said person submits, in writing, to the finance director or his designee the location of the premises upon which such activities are to be conducted and maintains an annual record of the information that would be required of each transient merchant if said transient merchant were independently applying for a transient merchant license. Such record of information shall be maintained for period of one calendar year (i.e., a list of all transient merchants allowed to conduct business in calendar year one shall be maintained until January 1 of calendar year three). Such record shall be submitted to the finance director by February 1 of the following year. It is the responsibility of the holder of a blanket transient merchant license to ensure that any transient merchants conducting business under his blanket license do not violate the provisions of this chapter, and any violation by a transient merchant operating under a blanket license shall be deemed sufficient cause to deny the holder's application for a future blanket license.
K. 
An event conducted under a single-event blanket transient merchant license shall conclude not more than 14 days from the onset of the event.
L. 
If the City has probable cause to believe that a transient merchant is conducting business in violation of the provisions of this chapter, the City may, at its discretion, take possession of and hold all tangible personal property being offered for sale by said transient merchant pending the conclusion of any enforcement action taken by the City.