Street Vendors

I think all of us in the larger cities have come across the various street vendors, especially in the downtown areas.

There are various types of street vendors and that is what I am going to be explaining. Of course some of the street vendors require a license to be in a specific spot and other street vendors don't need that license. I know that in Toronto, the street vendors that are selling hot dogs, hamburgers, etc are required to have a license for a specific spot. In some ways that is great because you know who it is and they will be in a standard location all the time.

Now the other type of street vendors are the ones that just seem to float around and not have any specific location. I know that in our area we have two different types of street vendors that appear and disappear very quickly. The first one is the ice cream truck that will appear and park for a while and then go off to see if they can make more money somewhere else. The other vendor is the trucks that pull up and start selling fruit and vegetables from their vans/trucks.

The second type of vendor is the one that I am talking about because these are the ones where I have the biggest concern. This type of vendor worries me because they don't seem to have a license visible to identify that they are licensed to sell the products that they are selling. Also these vendors put all their products on the boulevard and block parts of the street. So when these vendors are around the neighbourhood they case a few problems. One, when people are looking at the goods on the boulevard they are sometimes blocking the sidewalk especially if they have a stroller and they leave the stroller on the side to walk around and check the produce out. Now another issue that they can cause is when people park illegally or double park to pick up some produce. These vendors could cause a major accident and they wouldn't be held responsible for causing it.

I don't mind the vendors that are licensed to be in areas or even the ice cream trucks, it is the vendors that don't have the licenses clearly visible that bother me. If you want to sell your produce or goods please considering all of those around you and make sure you are doing it legally and safely.