It’s hard to estimate the number of vendors on the pavements and streets of Georgetown. Those numbers ebb and flow. There are full-time vendors who trade most days and there are seasonal vendors who take advantage of consumer demand surges. During the period before Mother’s Day, for example, scores of short-term vendors take to the streets offering roses or I Love You Mom mugs. It’s the same in the period before Father’s Day or St Valentine’s Day or Easter Monday. The period before Christmas goes without saying.
There are weekend traders too, people who have weekday jobs and who supplement their incomes on Saturdays and Sundays. Then there are children who trade after school and at weekends as well.
The number of street vendors in Georgetown say many things about urban life in Guyana. The increasing numbers of younger street vendors point to a rise in the numbers of early school leavers. Most of them come from impoverished or dysfunctional families. The numbers of adult traders point to the scarcity of other meaningful forms of employment. That apart,
