STREET vendors are once again poised to take over our sidewalks and in certain areas even part of the road, the news said. They will once again jam the entrance and exits of the shopping malls worsening the pedestrian traffic flow in the area.
Let us face it, there are a lot of our people who have to earn a living the informal way - that is by becoming ambulant vendors. By selling their wares in the streets, they do not have to pay for store space, regular taxes both national and local, as well as not heed trading and health regulations set by the law. They can almost sell anything with minimal capital and even locate themselves along prime commercial areas with heavy foot traffic. I was once told that a regular kwek kwek vendor can earn at least 500 pesos per day!
The informal business sector of our economy is really huge. Think of the employment that it generates - with just a little capital one can try to earn a living on the streets by selling items - food and non-food. Think of the wide array of choices that our consumers are given - the street retail business caters from the low-end to the high-end market they say.
While we can narrate the good that the informal sector contribute to our economy we must not discount the negative impact that it also gives to our local businesses.
I have always heard complaints from the formal (tax paying and regulated businesses) sector of the unfair competition posed by these street vendors. Strolling down the streets of the central business district, we just have to compare the goods that are sold in both formal establishments and street vendors.
More than often, the goods sold by the street vendors are also being sold inside the commercial stores whose entrances they are blocking. One can see sunglasses, socks, cellphone cards, watches, toys, gift wrapping paper, fruits, and of course the endearing pirated DVDs and used clothes and bags.
The main difference is that the small shop owners pay the national and local government business taxes, provide mandated benefits to their employees, pay premium space rental for the prime location and have to comply with the numerous business regulations set by the local council.
These shop owners contribute to the local economy by paying their due to the local government and I suppose that they deserve to be given protection from unfair competition posed by these sidewalk vendors. There is always a time and place in doing things.
The current policy of the local government of giving 1/3 of the sidewalk to the street vendors is to the detriment of the pedestrians.
One can see that pedestrians are now forced to walk on the streets because sidewalk vendors are occupying a portion of the road. Public safety is a prime priority of the local government so exposing the pedestrians to road accidents just to favor street vendors is a public safety issue.
The resources needed to enforce the policy is also very hard, do we have to conduct foot patrols in every street armed with yardsticks to ensure that the street vendors are on the 1/3 side of the street? This policy becomes useless once customers flock in front of the street vendors’ wares because they have effectively blocked more than half of the narrow sidewalks that we have.
What was disturbing was the information that Col. Jimlani gave that most of our street vendors are not from Davao City. I had the impression that our street vendors are citizens of the Republic of Davao.
So now, it turns out that violators of our ordinances on sidewalk occupation are non-residents of our city. I do not know with you, but I will always give preference to Davao City residents who are street vendors as well as establishment owners.
These residents have shown their commitment to the progress of our city by being registered voters. If outsiders are creating chaos on our sidewalks, giving unfair competition on legitimate store owners, then something must be done. Let their own mayors and local government units take care of their needs. It is but fair to local taxpayers that resources of the city must be first enjoyed by its residents who pay local taxes.
Yes, I know that it is Christmas season and that everyone deserves to be happy even street vendors and non-Christians alike. All I am saying is that proper regulations must be created to have a win-win situation for both legitimate shop owners as well as street vendors.
My previous articles on this topic dwelt on clearing the sidewalks of street vendors by day then allowing them to occupy the sidewalks and even portions of the road at night is a win-win situation. The store owners can enjoy the daytime crowd while the night market will still proper with the after work shopping crowd. If they want to sell during the day, there are retail spaces that can be rented out in Mallengke, Bankerohan Market for example. Vendors should be charged not only for the sidewalk and road space they occupy which may be a measly 20 pesos per day (please increase it to at least 100 pesos per day) but also according to the value of their products (a DVD vendor may have tens of thousands worth of merchandise in that small table).
These restrictions are designed not to penalize the street vendors but to encourage them to enter into the formal market by renting out legal stall spaces, pay taxes as well as play fair in game of business. Our business is not to prevent street vending but to see to it that this becomes as mere transition phase towards participating in the formal retail business.
Christmas season is for everyone. We can do business as long as we play it fair to both customer and fellow businesses.