Valuing a repurposable space

This sidewalk-based key & lock guy repurposes his space by hanging keys, doorknobs, and other trade items from the window behind him (along with his sign, claiming he fixes any and all kinds of locks and also repairs, buys, and sells safes). Consider how the space for an informal sidewalk-based business is valued, and the factors that affect that space's value. Like other, more formal businesses across the world, such space is partially judged by more widely recognized metrics such as visibility to pedestrians, amount of usable space available, and so on. 

However, there are a few context-specific metrics that sidewalk-based entrepreneurs in Yangon must also consider. One of these factors is access to a building with reliable electricity that would be willing to sneak a wire out (that this vendor has a generator indicates that either a) the building owner is unwilling, or b) the electricity supply is not reliable enough). Another is the presence of means to hang a rain tarp (if there is not pre-existing overhang or rain shelter built into the adjacent building). Yet another is whether a vendor can securely store the elements that make up their business (table, chairs, tarp, generator, merchandise, etc.) to minimize the amount they must physically carry with them from their homes to their place of business. After all, it'd be a bit tricky to carry one's collection of safes around on a daily basis. 

What are the comparable requirements for sidewalk-based vendors in your local context (if they exist)?

Generator protection

 

Here, a guard from the inside of a travel agency has been temporarily reassigned to one of the generators that is undergoing routine maintenance.  

The generators that keep hotels and businesses running when the electrical grid goes down are highly valued. Used in cinemas and large spaces, with a capacity of 90KVA to 500KVA, industrial-scale generators start at $18,000 and can run to more than $50,000. With such prices, no expense is spared for their maintenance, storage, and protection.

As generators increase in size (and therefore in cost and power capacity) they are more shielded both from the monsoon elements and from potentially prying hands. In the case of hotels and service businesses, shielding is also employed to muffle sound.

Light by Toyota

Although nominally lit when there happens to be grid-supplied electricity, post-sunset blackouts plunge the underground parking garage that doubles as the entrance to my building into darkness. To date, the solution was either:

a) lighting candles, or 
b) some charitable car owner turning on their headlights for the duration of the blackout and leaving their keys with the security guards to turn them off once the electricity returns.

Recognizing the suboptimal nature of these solutions, one of the inventive building residents is seen here rigging up a lighting system built around the most popular off-grid power source in Myanmar (and many resource constrained contexts): a car battery. As he's installing the system here (during an actual blackout, admirably) he uses his own car's battery to power the very lights that he is attaching to the ceiling.