Priorities

In an afternoon downfall, this caramel-covered crab-apple vendor stands under a tree nearby a pedestrian bridge. Like most street vendors, she wears her cash register slung in front of her. While she could have opted to design a goods display method that sheltered herself, it is unlikely that she would have been able to create one that adequately sheltered both herself and her inventory simultaneously and still be easily commuted with aboard buses and carried in a hurry if chengguan (城关 "sidewalk police" in charge of making sure no sidewalk-based trade is occurring) appear. Hence, she has prioritized the dryness of inventory over that of herself. Speed and compactness are valued over personal comfort when one is selling on the street.

When your means of financial support is also your means of physical support. When what allows you to provide shelter to your family must also shelter you.

Duck-tied

During my conversation with this fowl-vendor, I observed these ducks for a while. The vendor believes this works because, like people, some ducks are risk-averse, while other would rather walk away. Throughout our conversation, I only observed one duck at a time trying to escape - never did two ducks simultaneously attempt to walk away. 

The speed at which things learn, the processes through which they do so, what "learning" looks like over time/through multiple iterations, and what unexpected new behaviors can emerge on the other side.

For example, "The Flying V".

Rice candy (hi)story

This vendor cooks up blocks of rice candy in his home nearby, packs them into his carry-basket, and brings them down to this mini-park near a busy bus stop to patiently perform the work of breaking the larger blocks of candy into bite-size pieces and placing them into small plastic bags. The tool he uses to break apart the candy - picture a metal shoehorn that has been bent in the middle - also serves as "acoustic advertising": the sound of his hammer upon the metal implement notifies passersby of his presence.

Each bag of candy is one kuai, around US $0.16. He is 75 years old this year, and has been making rice-candy for the past 25 years. He offers up a piece for me to taste. "Just roll it around in your mouth, though, don't try to chew it or you'll end up like me!" he warns, revealing a gap-filled smile.

For the epicurious, imagine a "White Rabbit" - only with sesame seeds. The humble White Rabbit Milk Candy, by the way, has (I think) a fascinating history and could represent one aspect of China's modernization; from its humble "shanzhai" beginnings as "ABC Mickey Mouse Sweets", to their shining moment as a gift to visiting Tricky Dick, rising to become (arguably) the most popular candy in the world, to accusations of melamine contamination and the subsequent shift to using milk from New Zealand for production. The rabbit tale continues.

Theft

Consider for a moment you are the victim of theft. Would you still consider it theft if what was "stolen" was something of no value or use to you? What if someone is merely capitalizing upon your otherwise unused exhaust/residue? How would the transformation of something you personally had no previous use for cause you to reassess its value, and make you  classify someone's re-use/repurposing of your waste as "theft"?

If you were the manager of the conveinence store, would you consider something of yours being stolen in this situation? If so, what? Light? Business? Convenience?

Ambiguous service advertisement

Although typical street vendors must consider how best to display the goods they sell, there are also plenty of interesting examples of vendors displaying available services. For this sidewalk-based masseuse/manicurist, the display (and advertising) is simple: the pink chair is for clients, the wired-together green plastic stool is where the masseuse sits, and the remaining stool acts as the "shelf" for holding nail-cutting tools and fragrant oils for anointing customers' feet. When I walked by, he asked whether I wanted a pedicure. 

What level of exposure to such a street-based service display is required before one is able to discern who is selling their services as a manicurist and who is just sitting in a patch of shade with some empty stools? What is the price of misidentification? Is there an equivalently "ambiguous" example of a street-based service advertisement in your context?

One square inch: Pansodan Bridge's vendors

The sidewalk adjacent to an elevated overpass in downtown Yangon is full of examples of informal business (as is the case with most sidewalks in Yangon). The vendors that have taken up this covered portion of Pansodan Bridge take advantage of the shade and protection from the elements provided by the covered sidewalk, as well as the railing that separates the sidewalk from the road. 

In this first example, the potential for a 50-foot drop on to the train tracks below makes the goods display technique for these bananas somewhat risky.

This walkway-based vendor located nearby the above bananas does not push her luck as far. She sells fried snacks, with her kit representing the quintessentially pared-down carry of a mobile vendor in Yangon:

- One stool for displaying goods, upon which is placed the metal platter favored by numerous mobile vendors across Yangon. 

- One stool for sitting upon, which has been extensively repaired using a combination of packing tape, wood, plastic twine, and newspaper).

- One shorter plastic stool, upon which is placed:

- A plastic basket, directly in front of her for easy access to plastic bags for wrapping customers' purchases and, beneath that, some food and drink for personal use. The basket also contains this microenterprise's "cash register" - a small bag filled with money for making change and storing the day's revenue (another reason to keep it within arm's reach at all times).

The young boy, who co-runs the papaya and watermelon operation with his mother, uses the ledge of the walkway's railing to balance metal platters crowded with fruit. While the fall is less serious than the bananas' potential plummet, to have one metal platter tip over would eliminate a significant share of inventory - along with any hope of profit for the day. 

Here, a customer takes notice, approaches, and purchases some papaya.

Down the railing a bit from the papaya and watermelon one notices a creative pineapple goods display solution. This vendor has capitalized upon the ridges cut within each fruit to remove the inedible exterior "eyes" to build miniature structures for displaying his goods. Also, note the level of trust implicit in placing the "cash register" (here, the recycled bottom half of a discarded one-liter water bottle) in such close reach of customers (or those with less pure intentions).

Fan of yours

A sidewalk-based fan repair business has repurposed the metal cages of several fans that were beyond hope of repair into their goods display and inventory solution. They allow the goods displayed in the seperate fan cages to be organized by function (one for knobs, one for switches, one for pivoting connector-joints, etc.), and also enable customers who have diagnosed their fan's problem themselves to select the parts they need from the relevant cage.

Besides holding fan components, fan bodies are also repurposed to function as bird cages - more on this bird vendor later.

Bus stop bassinet

A longyi/baso, bit of thick rope, and some street-level creativity turns this bus stop into a suitable hanger for a cradle. The bus shelter is particularly appropriate in this repurposed role on account of it coming with a roof and its supporting pillars being wide enough apart to allow the mother to rock the contraption back and forth, miraculously enabling the baby to fall asleep despite urban Yangon's honking, yelling, selling, and general surrounding chaos. The mother's betel shop is positioned directly in front of the bus shelter - speaking to both the additional value that is wrung out of this everyday piece of urban infrastructure, and also the subjectiveness as to the "purpose" of that same piece of urban infrastructure. Bus stops are not merely for waiting for the bus, but also for providing shelter for sidewalk/street-based businesses, in the same way that many of Yangon's sidewalks are not intended solely for walking, but as (semi-public) commercial spaces available for rent.

With training like this from such an early age, I'm no longer surprised that I'm the sole passenger unable to sleep through the all-night music video and romantic comedy movies compulsorily blasted during overnight bus rides.

Fairness vs. toughness

An intriguing marketing and price display system recycles the discarded paper arms included in these "instant tattoos". 500 kyat (roughly U$ .60) gets you a pair of tattoo-covered arms. While some consumers may see the main purpose of these wraps as showing off their tattoos, this vendor markets them for their supposed skin protecting qualities (literally, "skin covering gloves").

Whether it is more valuable to show your toughness through fierce-looking body art, or to keep your skin covered (and therefore lighter-toned and more "attractive" vis a vis local norms of beauty) depends upon the context the potential consumer comes from.

Note also the symbiotic relationship between the purse and tattoo-sleeve vendor and the adjacent fried snack vendor, with the prior using the latter's cart as a means of illuminating his goods. Potentially mutually beneficial in that the longer the time spent mulling over goods, the more tempting the smells from the barbecue stand may become to the user. The constraints and subtleties of olfactory-based marketing.

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)?