Street Vendors

One of the most memorable aspects of travelling in a city outside the western world is the presence of so many street vendors. They offer a very wide range of goods and services, from snacks to cigarettes to clothes to handbags. In Vietnam, students offer photocopied books about the recent history of their country; in the southern islands of Thailand, vendors offer hair braiding and massage; in Sudan, there are the ubiquitous fuul beans. There is also, of course, a darker side to the goods and services offered, especially to a man walking on his own. Street vending is one part of the informal economy which is so important to so many countries: it offers the benefits that there are low entry and exit barriers (i.e. it is comparatively easy to begin trading or to stop trading), low taxes (generally, vendors are able to avoid all kinds of taxes and official payments) and opportunities for people who cannot find work in the formal sector. On the other hand, street vendors are not protected from exploitation or harassment from corrupt officials or organised crime, have little or no access to public services (e.g. public health) and have few opportunities to improve their conditions and prospects. In times of economic downturn, a number of people who lose their jobs in the formal sector (especially in factories) move into the informal sector instead. Sometimes, their sojourn will be just temporary and, when the economy picks up, they can return to a factory job.

In some other cases, as happened in Bangkok after the 1997 financial crisis, some of the white collar workers who lost their jobs decided that, rather than return to provincial under-employment in the agricultural sector, they would remain in the city and use their skills to create upmarket street vending businesses. Some of these vendors have international supply chains and their own brands, which are made possible by the flexible manufacturing systems now available in industrial estates in many parts of Thailand. However, it is a more common case, especially in the poorer countries and cities, that street vendors find themselves in almost impossible positions. More and more people enter the sector because of lack of opportunities elsewhere and provide ever more cut-throat competition for existing vendors. Living conditions are usually miserable and vendors have little if any access to finance or training to improve their conditions. While there is an optimistic view of the world that says that these poor people could improve their lots if they were given access to micro-finance and able to obtain leverage from their existing assets (e.g. the Hernando de Soto, Muhamad Younus and World Bank approach), there is an equally powerful case for arguing that there is no chance for most people who enter this part of the informal sector ever being able to escape from it subsequently.