We have quite a number of these people selling mainly fruit and vegetables at intersections and by the sides of roundabouts. Needless to say that it is a very dangerous enterprise and should be stopped. That is beside the various beggers who harrass you from time to time (in between being jailed that is) sometimes at the very same intersections particularly in the business district.
And yes, most of these people are Bahraini.
It might be much of a worse situation in other less fortunate places in the world, still it incenses me to see this in Bahrain.
I am not advocating taking away their livelihood, I am against them subjecting themselves and others around them to unwanted danger. These vendors could easily set market stalls for themselves in safer places rather than wonder around in between cars at traffic lights or at street-verges.
Comments
Street Vendor
We have people who do that here, but they usually set up stalls either on the side of the road or in parking lots. Isn’t there an open air market where they could sell their goods?
Street Vendor
It’s sume, btw. It use to not let me do that.
Re: Street Vendor
we used to have a lot of comment spamming, that’s why I disabled anon posts for a while. at the urging of scorpio however to open it up again I did! let’s see how bad the spamming gets.. for now it has been manageable!
Re: Street Vendor
We do have open-air markets in various places around Bahrain. I am not sure of the laws or permissions nor rents the stall-holders might have to pay.
On the way to the F3 race in the weekend, we passed through the village by Hamad Town called Demistan on Thursday morning you will see a huge and bustling open air market at the centre of the village (I’m taking my camera there when I have a chance!) selling everything from clothes to fish. And it was raining and that area was flooded when we drove through, but the answer is yes we do have such areas.
Why these people get in between cars is anyone’s guess. Mine is that they probably see it as another captured market. Shove the produce at a drivers’ head and he’ll either curse you for the effort or buy it from you to get rid of your face! Well maybe another reason is that you don’t have much time to bargain and you will just pay the asking price. Your bargaining time is limited by the duration of the red light!
Having said all of that, the particular guy in the picture is ultra-pleasant. Maybe that’s why I see people actually buying stuff from him all the time.
Street Vendor
hey! i saw that very same dude last night at around 7.30pm down that very same street…… that i happened to be driving along accidentally cos i couldn’t find my way to um-al-hassan from saar… so i had to go back to riffa and take the sitra route…..but yea.. tht dude with oranges or whatever….. needs to sell his stuff safely before he gets knocked over by these blokes on bikes :D……
Street Vendor
grabbing women? huh? i hear the same thing happens at malls in Saudi… And i always wondered why don’t the ladies grab the dudes back…. give ’em a shock of their lives…. sorta’ other than giving them the usual reaction they wanna’ see – being fearful that is… u give someone a reaction they don’t usually expect… and they stop doing it –
Street Vendor
I have never seen street vendors in Qatar, but man in Jordan they are all over the place and they are very annoying. They even knock on you car window, and keep nagging until you finally succumb and buy whatever they are selling! And if the driver is a female, then there is trouble as some of these street vendors get a kick out of grabbing women! Disgusting!
Re: Street Vendor
Huh? That’s a bit “over the top” don’t you think?
Re: Street Vendor
I’ve never heard of street vendors or beggers for that matter going as far as that in Bahrain. They’re normally quite nice as far as I can see. We have these all over the place, if it’s not fruit and veg, then they’re selling newspapers and run between the cars doing their trade, or by the side of the road where you can stop and the vendor will bring you your favourite paper.
They’re friendly, that’s how they prosper and actually get clients buying their newspapers only from them.
From what I have seen is that the vast majority of these people are from the sub-continent with a few Bahrainis like the guy you see in the picture. Again, I haven’t experienced anything bad from these people. I wonder if others have?
Street Vendor
Strav,
It is easier said than done! Your first natural reaction when this happens is to run!