I am confused.
As far as I understand my needs, my directory listings are going to be local stores in my tri-county area. Only a store can be listed, not an item.
Only a store owner (or admin user) should be allowed to add their store/listing and I consider them to be vendors.
The ones who write listing reviews, send messages, and add to favorites are not the vendors, they are users.
Every one who uses the directory is a user, but only vendors can add listings. And therein lies my confusion, there is no concept of a user, as far as I can see. In my mind a user can be a vendor and a user who is a vendor can add listings, but for all other users, the [Add Listing] button should not even exist. Where is the distinction between a vendor and a user, established?