Life of Street Seller
You’re late for work, and you need to hurry.
As you cross the street, you bumped into a familiar face. The young man smiles at you and stretches his hands to help you.
You say “thank you” and continue to walk. The man looks at you and walks to his small stand at the sidewalk. Then, he arranges his displays of products – biscuits, sweets, and bottles of water.
Do you know the man?
Yes, you’re right. He’s a street seller or vendor. You always see street sellers in the morning and the evening when you go home from work. You’re busy working at an office or banks while the street seller – he stays on the streets and sells products.
You would think that a seller’s job is easy. If you do, think again.
An Early Journey on the Road
Street sellers usually wake up early every morning. Some wake up at 3 or 4 in the morning. The vendor prepares his or her products.
Street vendors have little savings, and they spend most of their savings on food, their family’s needs and buying other products to sell. Hope makes them determined and their desire to earn make them patient. But, not all days on the streets are happy events.
Most street sellers in Asia face a hard time selling products. For example, Filipino vendors in the streets of Metro Manila, Philippines have little income. Some of their products sell don’t matter much as candies, biscuits, and hairpins.
Choosing the Best Locations
You would observe that street sellers don’t stay in a specific place. There’s a reason for that.
People pass to specific place during the day, and they go to another place in the afternoon and evening. A cloth seller in Japan sells in two locations – the temples and the sidewalk near offices.
According to the seller, many people pass outside the temple every morning. Then, the seller moves to the sidewalk in the afternoon and evenings because many office workers pass there.
Sometimes, street sellers face a hard time to find a location where they can sell their goods.
Why?
Other sellers are also thinking the same way. That’s not all. If you’re a street seller, you have to lower the price of your goods so that many customers would buy your products.
Let’s say you’re selling blankets for a high price. The vendor besides you sells the same blankets but at a low price. Most customers would choose to buy an affordable blanket.
Hassle on the Street
Street sellers endure the city noise, the smoke coming from cars and sudden weather changes. A seller would sell handkerchiefs or magazines and walk between cars. There are times that street vendors are stuck in the traffic with you to sell cigarettes.
Yes, it’s a tough life, but that’s their job. You need to work hard and sacrifice for you to earn. Street sellers live in a cruel world where some customers don’t care or get annoyed at them. But, the vendors still stand up and face the crowd. They always give a smile to a passerby. That’s how life goes – you keep moving on.
