I abandoned plans to trade at a night market in a Shoreditch car Park last Saturday because I am quietly protesting the advent of what I find is an erosion of complete autonomy from street food traders by the new generation of market organizers. I find this phase of my Street trading life rather educational because when I had the misplaced security of the two major markets I traded at, I thought that their management styles were oppressive but in terms of greed , this new breed wins the trio of gold, silver and bronze. half of the time, they do not have a clue what they are doing. They have chanced upon street trade organizing from various backgrounds and have decided for themselves that the quickest route to make money is through a percentage cut of their stallholders takings.By my calculations, If I had done that market, on the rainy night that it was, after paying the 15% charge I would have been lucky to break even.But what is the point protesting if this new levy is not being challenged by anyone else? You get marked as a trouble maker whilst the passive lot get all the juicy markets or gigs or festivals and you don,t even get a look in.
This leads me to the main problem with street trading. It is a frighteningly unregulated battlefield unless it is run by a local authority.Council run markets are generally not run on prime sites and there is not normally a will to properly advertise them enough to draw in buying crowds.The Local authorities health and Safety team will always look after the food you sell to the public but no one looks after you as a trader! What we need is an association with teeth that can bite! Perhaps I will start one. On second thought, I now have become paperwork lazy. I nearly used the word phobia. That is what doing too much cooking does to you. It has become even more necessary to regulate the treatment of street food traders by market organizers especially since the recession. On almost every street corner in London, you will find anyone, sometimes with just a tiny stove with an open fire and a frying pan selling "street food", What isdisturbing is that more often than not , they have been tutored in "Street food trading " by this new generation market organizers who also masquerade as street trading consultants. How do you consult not from years of experience selling food to the public but from method statements from the traders on your list.! Make no mistake, these new breed are usually very internet savvy and can twitter and facebook and do the rest of them,they can of course garner an eating and drinking crowd. Youngish-Eating-Drinking types in Street food land =A sell out food stall. So you see , if you can get the crowd to follow you, any street trader and aspiring ones will sell their last paella to follow you and your tutorship even if you are teaching half -cooked rubbish! Most Traders are averse to too much paper work. The reason for this is two fold. 1.If they have come into street trading from office work, they want to keep well away from any kind of paper work.2. English is not the first Language of most street food hawkers therefore, doing paperwork is to them like pulling teeth. So, how can these new generation market organisers tutor in Street trading? They can because the experienced traders are not doing it and there is no credible association. At an Olympic fest last year ,one of these new breed organizers offered to help us manage our queue by collecting the money for us.The boyfriend thanked her no. That promptly put an end to further trading opportunities with her.
Why should any trader have to pay for a space twice? Why should any trader have to pay a fee to rent a space from an organizer and also reveal the details of her takings to the same organizer by giving him/her 15% of her takings? The operative word here is takings. The trader will have spent good money on the ingredients and all the other overheads Nowadays you,d be lucky to make up to 40% in profit after expenses and overhead. Where is the autonomy in running your own business when you have to declare your earning to a market organizer? Did I tell you dear Blog that I have run markets in the past? Well, if my toddlers allowed me enough sleep I might just go back to it in a jiffy. I would run a pure and fair market and an association and a tutorial for the newly initiated traders....ouch! my head hurts already!
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