What is Street Stall Economy?
Street stall economy refers to an economic form formed by obtaining income sources by setting up street stalls. As a marginal economy of a city that run mostly by the migrant workers, it has always been a key factor affecting the city’s appearance and environment. However, the street stall economy has its unique advantages, which can relieve the employment pressure to a certain extent under the background of the financial crisis.
After Chinese Central Civilization Office declares that road markets and itinerant vendors will not be included in the evaluation and assessment of civilized cities in 2020 in order to recover the economy after the pandemic, lots of people who lost job during pandemic got the chance to go on the street as a street vendor. It has boosted the real economy, because the space opened for the street vendors are usually located near the large shopping malls. This makes lots of people to go out and enjoy their time in real stores.
Like India, China is now at a moment reckoning between the digital delivery age and the street vendor age. The digital delivery is popular because people are not willing or do not have time to go out. And food delivery was extremely needed during the pandemic because lots of people were not able to go out.
I have seen a video that shoot by a delivery guy that he found that the orders online will decline especially at night after the establishment of the street stall economy, because lots of people are going out for dinner instead of staying at home. People would prefer to go out especially after months of lockdown.
What is more, according to Street Vendors in the Global Urban Economy, running a street vendor has low skill requirements. It is easier for a person with low skills and little capital to take to street vending. While the food delivery has more pressure because of the harsh time limitation and the rate system, the street food vendor might be more appealing to the migrant workers when choosing a way of making a living a big city. After the establishment of the Street Stall Economy, more people would prefer being street vendors instead of doing food delivery since it will provide them the freedom to choose the categories that they sell. They deem it a new chance to make fortune, while the food delivery is a dead-end job, because people would be trapped in that kind of algorithm system.
However, the civic authorities in the most metropolitan cities all over the world treats the street vendors as “intruders” and the urban elites view them as eyesores that blotch the urban scenario. It is hard for those street vendors to stay in specific locations for a long time because of the Urban environmental management. What is more, when this novelty wears off, people will return to their old way of life again.
In conclusion, I think though there might be influence on the food delivery industry, street stall economy will not conflict the food delivery industry in a large scale. This is because the limited location and the strict regulations will prevent lots of migrant workers from becoming street vendors.
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