Street Vendors

Street vending has been a vital part of meeting physical and emotional needs throughout America’s history. Street vending is a poor family’s way of supplementing meager income, keeps cultural traditions alive, and supplies customers’ needs for variety, sustenance, and sociability. Opposition to this informal practice, however, has consistently produced restrictive regulations as well as complaints from businesses and the public. Street vending traditions reflect the vendors’ countries of origin but also have responded to the variety of climates and resources in the United States.