Can you imagine a beach without hawkers selling parched groundnuts and chickpeas? Or horses and camels running, carrying precariously placed patrons on their backs? Sometimes the inebriated riders provide a hearty laugh to the onlookers by losing their balance and falling. The animals with a long experience halt patiently, perhaps mouthing unspeakable expletives, waiting for them to get up.
Hawkers are having a difficult time now with online shopping that deliver everything at your doorstep and shopping malls owned by famous industrial houses selling everything at a discount or offering other attractive schemes. Shopkeepers have always detested them. Several civic bodies have ‘non-hawking zones’, but some hawkers do business there by greasing the palms of officials. There are housing societies that prohibit their entry, but I am happy that mine does not fall under that category. They can afford to sell things cheaply as they don’t have to pay taxes, and other overhead expenses are almost nil. Most are immigrants from other States, living in shanties. They have unique ways of announcing their arrival, some too loud and irritating.
With the fuel price going northwards almost every other day and the traffic getting wild, I often avoid going to the market. I get my daily necessities at my doorstep from these hawkers at cheaper rates than those charged by shopkeepers. I get vegetables, ‘pure’ ghee, ‘pure’ honey, eatables, dry fruits, garments, antiques and services like, spa, and tattoos from them. Of course, the dictum ‘’buyer beware’ applies here, and it is up to you to trust the hawker about the purity of the things he sells. There are even hawkers who give you a body massage and clean your ears of accumulated wax. Another set of hawkers eagerly awaited are those who sharpen your kitchen knives.
Bargaining with them and getting a feeling that I got the wares dirt cheap gives me much satisfaction. People say the hawkers are clever; they, knowing the bargaining habit of some customers, hike the price initially and bring it down later to make the customer feel that he got things cheap.
Some hawkers buy your old newspapers, ‘use once only’ plastic items and other unserviceable items you are eager to get rid of. These hawkers are ready to offer a higher price than your neighbourhood selling point, but it is common knowledge that the balance they carry is heavily loaded against you.
New hawkers are looked upon with suspicion in some places. Some of them have been caught red-handed while lifting children. They come during the daytime, gather information about a particular house or area, and enter it as thieves at night.
Most hawkers are honest and work hard to make ends meet. They are often required to dispose of perishable items at a loss at the end of the day. Those who want repeat customers do not cheat and charge a reasonable price. Once the trust is established, one can expect residents to wait for them. As they visit their customers every day, anything of inferior quality can be expected to be returned, in addition to the possibility of losing a customer.
