Hawker (trade)

Street hawkers selling bags and sunglasses in central Rome, Italy

A hawker selling Goat meat in Kabul

A hawker is a vendor of merchandise that can be easily transported; the term is roughly synonymous with peddler or costermonger. In most places where the term is used, a hawker sells items or food that are native to the area. Whether stationary or mobile, hawkers usually advertise by loud street cries or chants, and conduct banter with customers, so to attract attention and enhance sales. When accompanied by a demonstration and/or detailed explanation of the product, the hawker is sometimes referred to as a demonstrator or pitchman.

Regional

Victorian London

The costermongers of London, England were at their peak in the 19th century. Organised, yet semi-criminal, they were ubiquitous, and their street cries could be heard everywhere.

North America

In large cities across North America, hawkers are commonly known as street vendors, who sell snack items, such as popcorn, cotton candy, peanuts, beverages, and ice cream, along with non-edible items, such as jewelry, clothes, books, and paintings. Hawkers are also found selling various items to fans at a sports venue; more commonly, this person is simply referred to as a stadium vendor.

Caribbean

In the Caribbean hawkers are commonly referred to as higglers or informal commercial importers . They sell items in small roadside stands, public transit hubs, or other places where consumers would want items such as snacks, cigarettes, phone cards, or other less expensive items. Higglers often break larger items into small individual consumable portions for re-sale and use. Buying these items from more traditional vendors, farmers, or merchants for re-sale via their informal network in communities

South and Southeast Asia

Cart hawkers selling various Indonesian foods in Jakarta

Vendors in Antananarivo, Madagascar sell koba, a sweet made from ground peanuts, sugar and rice flour

Girl street vendor - A girl selling plastic containers for carrying Ganges water, Haridwar, India. Many street vendors in Asia are children.

Hawkers are very common in many countries in Asia. In India, hawkers are so prevalent they have unionized in the state of Bengal the capital of which is Calcutta. Balut is a popular dish sold by hawkers in the Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. In both China and Hong Kong, hawkers' inventories often include fish ball, beef ball, bugzaigo, roasted chestnuts and stinky tofu. In Singapore and Malaysia, these stands have become so successful that many have chosen to set up shop more permanently in a Hawker center.

Across Asia, stalls have been set up with little to no government monitoring. Due to health concerns and other liability problems, the food culture has been seriously challenged in Indonesia, though without marked success. However, in Hong Kong, the lease versus licensed hawker restrictions have put a burden on this mobile food culture. The term Jau Gwei (literally: running from ghosts) has been used to describe vendors often running away from local police.

See also

• Cuisine of Hong Kong
• Disabled veteran street vendors
• Camelô, the name given to street vendors in Brazil