Cities xxx (2012) xxx–xxx

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A new generation of Bangkok Street vendors: Economic crisis as opportunity

and threat q
Chuthatip Maneepong a,⇑, John Christopher Walsh b
a
School of Politics and Global Studies, Arizona State University, USA
b
School of Management, Shinawatra University, Thailand

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In 1997, the financial crisis seriously damaged the Thai economy and led to the closing of many compa-
Available online xxxx nies. Previously, it had been believed that laid-off workers would mostly return to rural employment or
part-time urban tasks. However, research among street vendors in Bangkok reveals that many of the
retrenched workers preferred to, and did, remain in the city and put to use their latent business and
entrepreneurial skills to practice by establishing their own informal businesses. This group of vendors
tends to dominate these activities, often through business savvy, with experience in the formal sector.
Instead of the ‘‘street’’ image of vendors being that of domestic migrants, the ‘‘new generation’’ of vendors
is evolving into something more complex. The paper focuses on documenting and understanding the phe-
nomenon of new generation street vendors. We attempt to derive lessons from the 1997 economic crisis
to improve the transition of vendors from the formal to ‘‘new’’ informal sector under current, and likely
worsening, economic conditions. This paper analyses how and why these two groups express themselves
and how they respond differently to the socio-economic and political forces that have an impact on the
urban space they share. It then considers whether policy makers should regard street vending as a viable
part of the economy which is not transitional but more permanent and should be regarded as an impor-
tant part of the urban economy of industrializing nations such as Thailand.
Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction ditions, they operate utilizing sophisticated, but often informal,

Street vending has been conventionally considered a source of
employment for the poor, uneducated, and recent immigrants to
the cities. Furthermore, it is typically associated with developing
cities. The authors question these perspectives. Street vending is
an important activity in most cities, developing to developed.
The range of vending activities, particularly in developing cities,
ranges from provision of low cost food to high end branded prod-
ucts and services. This case study, based on an extensive research
project in Bangkok, Thailand, set in the context of the empirical
and theoretical literature on global street vending, examines the
continuum of street vending activity in Thailand from a spatial per-
spective. It identifies a post 1997 cohort of street vendors charac-
terized by advanced business, technical and language skills: a
‘‘new generation of street vendors’’. Acutely aware of market con-
q Chen (2007) suggests that policy-makers should recognize the
An early version of this paper was presented to the UNESCO Gender Studies &
Women’s Research Networking Conference, organized by the Regional Unit for the
Social and Human Sciences in Asia and the Pacific, UNESCO, Thailand, during
February 9–13, 2009, Imperial Tara Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand. The authors are
grateful for comments of Prof. Cheung-Tong Wu, Gabi Guigu, editors and peer
reviewers. The mapping technical assistance of Andrew Gulbrandson is also
appreciated.
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 6622041487.
E-mail address: c.maneepong@asu.edu (C. Maneepong).
networks. The authors contrast this group with the ‘‘old genera-
tion’’ of street vendors, who sell mostly street food and low-end
clothing to a customer base of mainly lower income workers in
the neighborhoods in which they live.
The success of both groups is very spatially sensitive. When lo-
cal governments force them to move as little as 200 m, their busi-
nesses can be ruined, such as the Bo Bae market relocation at the
end of 2006. However, at a more macro-spatial level, the spatial
dynamics of the two groups diverge. The new generation of street
vendors is increasingly clustering (around product/service special-
ization), and are disproportionately found in the center of business
district (CBD) and tourist areas, particularly with respect to the
growing mass transit systems and the apartment blocks being built
near their stations (see Fig. 1). On the other hand, the geographic
distribution of the low-end vendors is much more closely aligned
with the distribution of Bangkok’s population.
role and importance of the informal sector, including street vend-
ing business, as a microenterprise that deserves support and pro-
motion such as offering training and secure areas. In line with
the International Labour Organization (ILO) agenda on decent
work, every man and woman deserves to have opportunities for
work in conditions of freedom, equity, human security and dignity
(Asian Development Bank (ADB) & ILO: Bangkok, 2011). However,

0264-2751/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2012.11.002

Please cite this article in press as: Maneepong, C., & Walsh, J. C. A new generation of Bangkok Street vendors: Economic crisis as opportunity and threat. J.
Cities (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2012.11.002
2 C. Maneepong, J.C. Walsh / Cities xxx (2012) xxx–xxx

Fig. 1. Major areas of street vending business in Bangkok.

the old generation of street vendors is vulnerable, often passive, in
the face of market change and harassment from powerful players
(officials, street mafia). This point of view is reflected in case stud-
ies of Bangkok (Charncheongrob, 2001, Nirathron, 2006), Vietnam
(Jensen & Peppard, 2007; Walsh, 2010), Cambodia and Mongolia
(Kusakabe, 2006), and Indonesia (Yatmo, 2008).
On the other hand, the new generation of street vendors locates
their vending businesses in strategic areas in CBD and tourist areas
and has to pay high rent for those private pitches. Thus, they are
more adaptive to official rules and regulations and avoid harass-
ment from powerful players and incidences of corruption situa-
tions. It is mostly external forces that prompt both sets of
vendors to take up operations, either as an attempt to alleviate
genuine poverty or to take advantage of emergent entrepreneurial
opportunities. Tolerance of corruption by officials and criminals
and repression of vendors maintains socio-economic inequalities
initially created by the external forces.
This study, based on street observation, media content analysis,
interviews with officials responsible for street vending, and exten-
sive interviews with 39 vendors (19 new generation, 20 old gener-
ation) in CBD areas such as Silom Road, tourist areas such as
Kaosan Road and suburban areas such as Bangkhen in the north
of Bangkok during 2007–2009. The interviews examine the differ-
ences between the two groups of street vendors particularly in re-
gard to their characteristics, strengths and performance, and
obstacles and barriers. Interviews were conducted face-to-face in
the Thai language (central dialect) and were accompanied by
extensive note-taking prior to interpretation of findings into Eng-
lish for subsequent analysis using recognized content analysis
techniques.
This paper begins with the literature review of urban planning
paradigms for the street vendors, followed by an examination of
Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s urban street economy
and policy on street vending, which is the body charged with reg-
ulating public space in the city. This is followed by a discussion of
the findings of the different behaviors and business profiles of the
two groups of street vendors that have changed the social base of
the vendors and urban economy of Bangkok.

Please cite this article in press as: Maneepong, C., & Walsh, J. C. A new generation of Bangkok Street vendors: Economic crisis as opportunity and threat. J.
Cities (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2012.11.002
 C. Maneepong, J.C. Walsh / Cities xxx (2012) xxx–xxx
Urban planning paradigms for street vending
As studies on urban economies demonstrate, most researchers
have a normative vision of informal economies as offering poor
quality of employment, low levels of income and poor business pro-
file and performance, street vending businesses provide little profit
and are unable to lift poor people out of chronic poverty in Africa
(Fonchingong, 2005; Lyenda, 2005) and in South Asia (Bhowmik,
2007). In addition, street vending businesses are involved in illegal
affairs starting from encroachment of public pavement, selling fake
and poor quality products and inducement of mafia and corruption
(Kusakabe, 2006; Phitsanbut & Apichanapong, 2007; Siriprachai,
2000) and represent undesirable aspects of commerce such as lack
of hygiene (Department of Public Affairs, Office of the Prime
Minister, Thailand, 2005). Policy implications from these studies fo-
cus on job creation and employment provision in an organized,
well-managed, stable, productive and growing formal sector to in-
crease the economic opportunities for the poor, including street
vendors (Lyenda, 2005). Street vending employment is only consid-
ered a means of acquiring the skills and experience necessary to
gain access to employment in the formal sector. Following exclusion
recommendations, city authorities consider street vending busi-
nesses as symbols of under-development. As a consequence, there
is a desire either to sweep the vendors out of sight or to eliminate
their presence altogether. Their own government officials harass
street vendors where these vendors located their business following
the distribution of their customers. In Mexico City Mayor Marcelo
Ebrard tried to resolve the street vendor ‘‘problem’’ by sending more
than 1000 police in riot gear into the historic center to keep vendors
from setting up stands and blocking sidewalks (McKinley, 2007).
A second approach employed in many cities including Bangkok is
to regularize the activities of business vendors and bringing their
activities within the scope of city authorization, for example by des-
ignating some pavement areas to accommodate street vending busi-
nesses, reduce the number of street vendors in temporary areas and
outside designated areas. However, there remain difficulties in rec-
onciling different interests in public uses and so street spaces consti-
tute conflict zones or exclusive and elite city locations where street
vending is generally barred (Bromley, 2000; Cross, 2000). In addi-
tion, without legal status, street vendors paid illegal compensation
commissions or unlawful protection fees to third parties in order
to secure their business (The Friedrich Naumann Foundation (2007).
The third approach uses social inclusion as a means of empower-
ing participation and becoming embedded within their community
and within the wider social and economic relations of the house-
hold. Having choice and being in control are important characteris-
tics of inclusion (Gray, 2000) and the contribution made by micro-
businesses paves the routes to social inclusion. Some Asian cities
have taken the social inclusion approach by acknowledging the role
and contribution of street vendors and enabling their registration.
For example, Singapore established the Department of Hawkers in
1971, while Kuala Lumpur set up the Department of Hawkers and
Petty Traders in 1986 and, in 1990, announced the National Policy
on Hawkers. Street vendors benefit from training, access to credit
and facilities improvement. During the Asian economic crisis,
employment generation in this sector significantly reduced eco-
nomic pressures (Bhowmik, 2005). In addition, specialized areas
such as hawker centers in housing projects and Jurong Town Corpo-
ration in Singapore have been developed in order to preserve, con-
trol and upgrade a health center with other services (Tung, 2010).
Bangkok’s urban street economy and policy on street vending
As in other developing countries, Thailand’s informal sector
plays a significant role in employment creation, production and in-
come generation. The National Economic and Social Development
Please cite this article in press as: Maneepong, C., & Walsh, J. C. A new generation of Bangkok Street vendors: Economic crisis as opportunity and threat. J.
Cities (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2012.11.002
3
Board (Office of the National Economic & Strategies on
Management of Informal Sector (in Thai) (Bangkok: NESDB,
2004) estimated that labor in the informal sector was about
71.9% of the national labor force. The value of production of the
informal sector in urban areas was about 83.9% of the overall urban
economy. From 1997 to 2007, the informal sector contributed
57.2% of Gross Domestic Product, meaning Thailand ranked sev-
enth among countries with the highest ratio of revenue derived
from the informal sector (Thailand Outlook, 2010).
The 1997 Asia financial crisis resulted in massive lay-offs.
Approximately 6% of the total number of workers (465,000 of
7,600,000 workers) lost their jobs. Consequently, in that year,
about 67% of laid-off workers (310,500 of 465,000 workers) turned
to self-employment under the National Statistical Office’s category
of ‘‘hawkers, peddlers and newsboys.’’ The alternative that many
faced was to return to their rural homes and seek employment
or partial employment in agriculture. Many preferred to remain
in the city and make what income they could from street level
activities. By 2000, the self-employment category increased 26%
compared to 1997. Consequently, about 5% of the total labor force
was self-employed (Nirathron, 2006). However, some unofficial
data report 900 vending spots in Bangkok involving a total of about
250,000 registered and unregistered vendors (International Labour
Office (ILO), 2002; Siriprachai, 2000). The difference between offi-
cial and unofficial figures is enormous and suggests that the infor-
mal sector is more significant than usually acknowledged.
Several BMA development plans over the past several decades,
including the current Plan, have promoted the concept of a ‘sys-
temic, orderly and livable’ city. Since 1972, the BMA has been
aggressively monitoring vending by enacting specific regulations
concerning fixed and mobile vending. The effort to clear the pedes-
trian pavements started in 1973. In 1977, under Governor Cham-
long Srimuang, the BMA Law Enforcement Department was
separated from the Policy Bureau and became one office under
the BMA (Nirathron, 2006).
Royal Thai Government agencies have been promoting the
informal sector to achieve urban poverty reduction since the
National Fifth Plan (1982–1986). Assistance programmes provided
include skills training, hygiene and sanitation training, financial
support and social protection. Recent initiatives are the implemen-
tation of the asset capitalization concept to provide vendors with
collateral to access soft loans from the People’s Project under the
supervision of the Government Saving Bank (Nirathron, 2006).
Characteristics of street vendors
The ratio between the old generation of street vendors and the
new generation of street vendors is clear. The recent surveys of
Nirathron (2006) and Charncheongrob (2001) confirm the high
number of the former group as subsistence entrepreneurs, espe-
cially in the food street vending business. On the other hand, the
Friedrich Naumann Foundation (2007), which conducted a wider
survey with multiple types of street vending businesses and in
some medium-to-high income and business district areas such as
Pathumwan and Bang Rak districts, reveal a significant proportion
of the new generation of street vendors who applied for and re-
ceived bank loans, albeit with some difficulty. The average income
of street vending of both surveys is above the minimum wage of
Bangkok (169 Baht1 in 2004 and 183 Baht or US$5 in 2006). The
Friedrich Naumann Foundation (2007) indicates that street vendors
earn twice the daily income of general workers in Bangkok (333 Baht
per day).
1
US Dollar = 30 Thai Baht.
4 C. Maneepong, J.C. Walsh / Cities xxx (2012) xxx–xxx
This study reveals a common pattern of people who have joined
the trade since 1997 may be former professionals, such as bankers,
engineers or office managers. They approach the business of street
vending from a more sophisticated standpoint than their col-
leagues. In some cases, they have university-level business educa-
tion and, in one case, a vendor was pursuing an MBA. As in
Malaysia and Singapore, this paper has revealed a new phenome-
non of conditions experienced by street vendors, new generation
of vendor group in which the vendors are educated middle class
entrepreneurs with at least a vocational college qualification.
These street vendors utilize their business and professional experi-
ence in banking and high profile companies to develop their infor-
mal businesses. The majority of these street vendors choose not to
go to work or to return to work in the formal employment system.
Almost all of them are full-time street vendors and are more ma-
ture and experienced (aged 35–55). In contrast, the age of vendors
in the old generation group ranges from mid-20s to late-50s. The
educational background also varies, from Grade 6 to Bachelor de-
gree in marketing and business. Agricultural work in the provinces
is their previous working experience and that is not very useful for
conducting business in Bangkok. Some migrated from the prov-
inces, especially the Northeast region, which is the poorest region
of the country, and neighboring countries, while others are
hill-tribe people from highlands of the North or else suffer from
a physical disability. Most of them are married, although some
are divorced or widowed. They are under severe economic pres-
sure to set up or maintain their street vending businesses, e.g.
being unemployed and/or seeking more income for families.
Friends and relatives from the same hometown are sources of basic
information and provide simple business knowledge, such as loca-
tion and type of street vending, availability of low cost accommo-
dation and affordable wholesalers. Vendors tend to run their
businesses close to their accommodation or that of their friends
and relatives in order to maintain their networks and to reduce
their operational costs, such as transportation cost.
There are, in other words, recognizable differences in the demo-
graphic characteristics and business practices of the two sub-sam-
ples involved in this study. The old generation of street vendors
encountered here are familiar from numerous other studies,
although the new generation has not been so well explored.
Business profile and strategies and physical locations of
Bangkok Street vendors
New and old generation of street vendors display differing busi-
ness management styles and have different market segments.
These street vending businesses are quite different from the basic
food vending stalls familiar in so many Asian cities. Instead, new
generation of street vendors makes use of sophisticated business
techniques such as branding, international supply chain manage-
ment and franchising at a very small scale and with the use of
modern information technology. In particular, the selection of
goods and services offered depends on close observation of the
market and trends within it. Telephone accessories to accompany
new generations of mobile telephones have proved to be a popular
choice for a decade, while others offer toys, traditional herbs and
foods and fashion accessories. Bangkok has in recent years been
going through a trend for gourmet coffee and for supposedly
healthy fruit smoothie drinks. Fresh fruit juices and smoothies
have appeared on the streets and some high quality drinks can cost
US$4–5. Certain brand-names and imported clothes are priced at
up to US$100. However, most goods are characterized by being
comparatively low cost, especially in comparison with shop items,
and are also typically easily portable and appeal to impulse buying.
A cup of coffee at Starbucks or an equivalent would represent most
of Bangkok’s working population’s average daily wage. By provid-
Please cite this article in press as: Maneepong, C., & Walsh, J. C. A new generation of Bangkok Street vendors: Economic crisis as opportunity and threat. J.
Cities (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2012.11.002
ing low cost alternatives, perhaps 10–15% of the original with a
personalized brand, street vendors take advantage of unmet de-
mand in the workforce and the desire of friends or colleagues to
treat each other, which is an important part of not just Thai culture
but East Asian culture generally. Female office workers and women
in medium-to-low income jobs can also afford to keep up with
contemporary fashion.
Authentic brand names, own brand names and high quality
products and services offered by the new generation of women
street vendors are targeted at the middle-to-upper income market,
such as office workers in business district areas and bazaars. Some
particularly popular rental pitches in private areas such as the ba-
zaar behind the Headquarters office of Thai International Airways
Corporation and Silom business district area cost up to US$500 a
month. However, these vendors can afford it and still run a profit-
able business.
On the other hand, most old generation of street vendors run
low cost, simple product and service businesses with limited tech-
nology and professional skills for mass market low income Thai
and international customers either in busy public areas, such as
in front of Chatujak weekend market or Kaosan Road, or in other
tourist and suburban areas.
In a competitive market, street vendors face competition not
only from similar types of product and services in the same market
area but also from mobile vendors. In particular, since in the old
generation group, the business has easy entry requirements with
low investment costs and limited business skills and professional
skills required, almost any existing or new street vendor can chal-
lenge old ones. Half of the interviewed old generation of vendors,
notably those offering low cost clothes, tattoos and hair decoration
for tourists, have changed some of their products and services after
losing out in highly competitive markets and do not wish to move
their existing street vending areas.
The old generation of street vendors runs their business in all
surveyed locations, including illegal pitches, because their product
assortment serves every income segment. In private bazaar spaces,
many old generation of street vendors cannot afford a rental pitch
but do their vending business by mobile vending or through pull
carts, tricycles or the back of pick-up trucks on street corners in
areas unauthorized by the BMA.
On the other hand, the new generation of street vendors largely
runs their businesses so as to serve wealthy customers or in areas
behind first class office spaces such as Shinawatra Building III, Thai
International Airways, in front of shopping centers and wholesale
markets such as Bo Bae. The new generation group tends to rent
private pitches or legal or allowable pitches provided by the BMA
in order to protect themselves from harassment by the enforce-
ment officers of the BMA. They rarely use the same location as
the old generation.
Strengths of being street vendors
Poverty alleviation with pride
Interviewed women street vendors in 2008–2009, especially old
generation, are happy to share their responsibilities with their hus-
bands to earn additional income for the family in order to raise
their children. For single mothers and divorced women, it is their
pride to make money and to be able to raise their own children.
Such women are financially independent. Their parents or grand-
parents and relatives provide support to look after their children
while they run the vending business. Street vending, in this per-
spective, serves an important social service, in addition to its eco-
nomic aspects. It also helps to increase the importance of women
in the economic character of the city while increasing the amount
 C. Maneepong, J.C. Walsh / Cities xxx (2012) xxx–xxx
of public space in the city in which women can safely and respect-
ably go about their lives.
Flexibility
Street vending tends not to be an occupation that follows regu-
lar office hours. In many cases, the BMA only permits actions after
7 o’clock in the evening or the hours of operation might feature
exclusively the lunch hour market or the commuter market. Some
markets only open on certain days or times and vendors restrict
their operations accordingly. Such work schedules are convenient
for those people, especially women, who also have responsibilities
for care of children and the elderly or unwell. Others have taken
the opportunity to create portfolio employment systems, in which
they manage several different business operations and streams of
income so as to achieve their targets.
For the new generation of street vendors, they do not feel ob-
liged or forced by their husbands or economic pressure to run their
vending business. They decided voluntarily to utilize their abilities
to earn extra income for household use or saving. Consequently,
they received direct assistance from their husbands and children
in such areas as preparation of sales products, selling over the
weekend and childcare. They also receive indirect support in terms
of no objection or embarrassment from running a vending business
expressed by husbands and children.
Performance of street vending business
Analysis of performance of street vending businesses depends on
respondent evaluations of profitability, which are difficult to verify.
Subsistence business
Being self-employed, street vendors can make their own deci-
sions about their businesses, including risk-taking management,
so it empowers them to be independent not only financially but
also occupationally. It is a legal occupation. Old generation of street
vendors works hard and owns their business, even though it may
be at the micro-level and make only marginal revenue. Since they
earn little, they spend little as well. Importantly, they have to be
self-disciplined in working hard and avoiding gambling (an occu-
pational hazard). In emergency situations, such as children or fam-
ily members falling sick, without savings or (previously) much
social welfare, such people had to borrow money at high interest
rates from moneylenders. These debts are very hard to repay
and, therefore, they are drawn into a vicious cycle of poverty.
Future business plan
Whereas more old generation of vendors entered their trade
with the expectation that it would be a long-term occupation, per-
haps a permanent one, the new generations of street vendors have
a more pragmatic approach. Some began the work to make up for
the loss of a job in 1997 and intended to return to formal employ-
ment whenever possible, while others see it as a supplementary
occupation or a temporary expedient. Some make semi-formal ca-
reer plans in which they calculate profit and loss margins and
determine their deadlines for achieving certain levels of income,
after which they find themselves empowered to return to a more
settled occupation, perhaps returning to hometowns left some
years previously.
Economic and business multiplier effects
Many of the new generation of street vendors who run sophis-
ticated businesses, such as franchising of food and drinks, develop
Please cite this article in press as: Maneepong, C., & Walsh, J. C. A new generation of Bangkok Street vendors: Economic crisis as opportunity and threat. J.
Cities (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2012.11.002
5
their own brand-names and organize production through factories
for hire, while running multiple pitches in different locations to
make their business a source of significant employment for their
subcontractors, franchisees and employees, including their family
members, in a range of up to 10–200 workers. These businesses
generate indirect jobs for supplying companies, transportation
companies and courier companies. The multiplier effect of these
businesses is significant for the economy of Bangkok, as it is for
other cities.
Obstacles and barriers
Vending pitches
The BMA has relaxed enforcement by allowing street vendors in
two areas; (i) 287 designated areas, and (ii) 76 temporary or non-
designated areas around Bangkok (Nirathron, 2006). The supply of
vending pitches seems sufficient for the 16,000 registered street
vendors in 2007. However, the high traffic of customers makes
these locations profitable for street vendors, despite the costs. Only
some locations are in demand. In authorized areas, street vendors
pay monthly official fees, business tax and penalty fees to the req-
uisite district office of the BMA in the range of US$9–30 in order to
secure and protect the legal status of the pitch and ensure clean
vending areas. Research reveals the rental cost of private pitches
in bazaars to be in the range of US$294–588 a month. Apart from
official fees for authorized pitches, street vendors also have to
pay informal transaction fees for permission from other street ven-
dors in prime vending areas such as the wholesale market of Bo
Bae. This informal transaction fee for permission is not an official
fee payable to the district office of BMA or any government agency
but is instead a payment required by the former owner of that
pitch. The fee can be extraordinarily high, ranging from
US$1470–11,764. Owing to limited land available, the private pitch
area of a bazaar is relatively small, about 200–400 sq. m. with facil-
ities such as shelter, electricity and rest room. The legal pitch or
authorized pitch provided by the BMA is worse since it had neither
facilities nor shelter.
Official harassment is generally predicated on the administering
of regulations and the collection of fees for services, as well as the
effort to ensure that vendors do not encroach on areas where they
have been designated as unwelcome. Many old generation of ven-
dors have reported that, when they wished to register their pitches
at the relevant District Office, they have been asked to make addi-
tional payments or ‘tea money’ of up to US$1515, for which no offi-
cial receipts are provided. Vendors also report that they have been
victimized by the police if their customers (or just visitors to the
area) contravene parking regulations. Owing to flexible and flexibly
applied rules and regulations, there are gaps in enforcement which
leads to the corruption of BMA police officers and hence their
harassment of street vendors. In addition, mafia in the street ven-
dor business areas force them to pay for protection or illegal rent.
Attempts by the BMA to change business operations at the Bo Bae
Market, a well-known wholesale clothes market area, have been
met with determined opposition from the vendors themselves
and their supporters. Violence has been used on occasions against
the vendors, mounted by unknown attackers and intended to drive
them away from their pitches. Again, the vendors have demon-
strated solidarity in resisting the violence in whatever form it ar-
rives such as demonstrations outside city hall and blocking parts
of the busy nearby Krung Kasem Road, when 23 vendors were ar-
rested (The Nation, 2006).
The new generation of vendors decides to rent their expensive
pitches from private owners in order to avoid incidences of corrup-
tion. Even though some vendors experienced requests and threats
from corrupt district officials and mafia, they can afford to pay tea
6 C. Maneepong, J.C. Walsh / Cities xxx (2012) xxx–xxx
money but refuse to do so. Regarding street vendors’ protests, vio-
lence and street riots, many new generation of vendors do not sup-
port them because they fear that the negative image of street
vending causes business decline.
Attitudes to vending
Bangkok policy-makers do not always recognize this important
role and its contributions and linkages. For example, the prosecu-
tion of street vendors in Bo Bae in 2006 caused hundreds or thou-
sands of direct and indirect workers in supplying companies, truck
companies and packaging companies to become unemployed.
Their children had to leave school and help their parents earn a liv-
ing. An interview with an executive of BMA in 2008 shows an igno-
rance of the causative impacts of the prosecution of street vendors.
‘‘These vendors are rich and have business experience so they can
change to other suitable business. Why should we allow them to run
their business on unauthorized pitches?’’ In fact, an interview with
street vendors in 2007–2008 provides another perspective: ‘‘It took
us so many years to learn and to be able to run the business without
any government support. We do it as a family-oriented business and it
is impossible to become rich from such a business. It is a business for
living. We are creating legal occupations for thousands of people
around Thailand. Because of unclear and unexpected prosecution in
Bo Bae wholesale market, we are losing not thousands but millions
of dollars. We almost went bankrupt and we can’t pay the loan for
our business so how can we survive without this business and how
can we start our business again from scratch? If our business collapses,
it will be not only me and my family but also thousands of other people
will become unemployed and face a crisis. I don’t understand why the
government policy punishes legal business people like us.’’ The BMA
might have a better chance to convince street vendors of the valid-
ity of their actions if they were better able to enunciate their vision
and demonstrate the extension of the rule of law to cover
everybody.
Financial resources
Since the capital investment of street vendors is marginal and
there is some business uncertainty for both mobile and fixed ven-
dors, especially since the legal status of their business space is
subject to often unpredictable BMA policy change, it is very rare
for these street vendors to be able to access formal financial insti-
tutions. Even though the new generation of vendors who rent
fixed private pitches in bazaars or in business district areas have
decent sales, their creditability seems limited. As a result, as ob-
served by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (2007), this study
also found that vendors experienced considerable difficulties in
requesting and receiving bank loans to allow their businesses to
expand.
The Government Saving Bank has established flexible require-
ments for street vendors since 2001 by specifying that credit
groups can act as collateral. Only a few of the surveyed old gener-
ation requested and received small soft loans, with an average of
US$294–588. This was useful for capital flow only in certain peri-
ods. However, they would prefer to have much bigger loans for
business expansion or for better flow of capital. In addition, many
old generation of entrepreneurs did not request a loan because
they could not establish a reliable credit group. Informal creditors,
relatives and friends are still a major financial source.
Conclusion and policy implications
To a certain extent and for a limited set of people, street vending
is becoming lucrative and a choice of occupation for the educated
middle class and not only a poverty avoidance occupation for the
Please cite this article in press as: Maneepong, C., & Walsh, J. C. A new generation of Bangkok Street vendors: Economic crisis as opportunity and threat. J.
Cities (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2012.11.002
poor. Many vendors are full-time vendors who run their businesses
in many areas or pay high rent cost for private pitches in strategic
business locations in Bangkok. Street vending is not a ‘‘dead-end’’
occupation but encourages some of the vendors to gain sufficient
experience to become entrepreneurs. Some flexibility in terms of
additional low level financing might help some of these vending
businesses to expand and provide employment opportunities in
long term to be micro-businesses. As a result, we believe that city
planners should consider street vending as an entirely separate
sector of its own and should be regarded as a viable part of the
economy which is not transitional but an important part of the ur-
ban economy of an industrializing nation such as Thailand. Impor-
tantly, the current policy on street vending business needs to
recognize the new generation of vendors and provides access to di-
verse financial and technical support for this new group; the exist-
ing financial resource can benefit only the old generation of street
vendors and only small and medium sized businesses are eligible
for commercial banks schemes. Without such assistance, a poten-
tially flourishing niche activity could be suffocated in its
adolescence.
Given available alternatives, street vendors contribute to the
ILO’s campaign for decent work for all, but the abuses alleged
to have been perpetrated by public officials, police officers
and criminal gangs are undermining those efforts, especially
the old generation of street vendors. These poor, with limited
business capacity and resources, operates at lower, or lowest,
levels of the retail hierarchy. Their level of income is normally
at, or close to, subsistence level. Previous policies on temporary
designated areas for street vending businesses and informal reg-
istration of BMA districts, including a recent policy on social
security focusing on health care and soft loans for the informal
sector but do not legitimize the status of street vendors. The
old generation of street vendors is seen as illegal business peo-
ple occupying public space. A more serious commitment to the
rule of law and legal registration would prevent many of the
abuses of innocent working people that have been documented
in this paper.
The area of collision between public space and private business
operation, especially for the new generation of street vendors rep-
resents a potentially fertile area of further investigation. Public pol-
icy-making such as tax incentives or recognitions for social and
corporate responsibility is concerned with the area of resource
allocation and the efficiency of space, while business operators
consider access to customers, establishing relationships with net-
work partners and maximizing revenue.
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