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Lived Experiences of Street Vendors in Manila: Findings from a Qualitative Study

A qualitative study of stationary vendors in three Manila market areas explores overlapping work and family pressures, coping strategies, and policy recommendations.
From TheFinanceBase Team4 min to read
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A 2024 qualitative study of stationary vendors in Divisoria, Quiapo, and Pritil found that financial vulnerability, family responsibilities, competition, daily operating problems, health concerns, and government enforcement can overlap in vendors’ working lives. The study draws on 20 vendors and interviews with six barangay officials; it offers detailed accounts from those participants, not a representative survey of all vendors in Manila.

What the Manila study examines

Romero, Paulino, Tan, and Cortez’s 2024 article, Urban Entrepreneurship on the Fringe: Action Research on the Challenges of Street Vendors in Manila, focuses on stationary sellers in flea and street markets in Divisoria, Quiapo, and Pritil. The authors report that 20 vendors participated and six barangay officials were interviewed. Those counts describe the study sample, not the size or views of Manila’s vendor population. Read the 2024 article.

The authors organize vendors’ reported challenges across connected parts of life and work. The findings are qualitative: they help explain experiences and coping strategies in the named settings, but they do not establish how common each experience is across Manila.

Challenges vendors described

Money, competition, and supply

Financial vulnerability intersects with competition and dependence on suppliers. Debt and financial management appear in the study both as pressures vendors face and as ways they try to keep their businesses going. A difficulty obtaining or managing money can therefore affect more than a household budget: it can also constrain day-to-day business decisions.

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Family duties and educational aspirations

Vending is embedded in family life. The study includes family responsibilities and educational aspirations among the challenges vendors navigate, showing that work decisions may have to be balanced against household obligations and hopes for education.

Operations, health, and labor

Operational problems and health and labor concerns form another part of the picture. These issues are not separate from earning a living: the practical demands of running a stall can coincide with the physical and labor-related costs of doing so.

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Rules and enforcement

Government regulation and enforcement also shape vendors’ experiences. The study describes adaptation to regulation as one coping response, alongside operational changes and community support. It does not justify treating all vendors as rule-breakers or assuming that every vendor faces the same enforcement conditions.

How vendors cope

The article’s abstract summarizes the coping strategies reported by its participants: “To manage these factors, vendors have adopted mechanisms to combat these issues through debt and financial management, operational adaptation, community assistance and support, adaptation to regulation, and emotional resilience.” The statement describes the study’s findings, not a guarantee that any one strategy works for every vendor.

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  • Financial management: managing money and using debt to respond to financial pressures.
  • Operational adaptation: adjusting business practices in response to practical challenges.
  • Community assistance: drawing on support from other people in the community.
  • Regulatory adaptation: adjusting to rules and enforcement.
  • Emotional resilience: persisting amid overlapping economic and personal pressures.

These strategies point to the interdependence of vendors’ circumstances: coping may involve household finances, business operations, relationships, and regulation at the same time.

What the authors recommend

The authors propose a five-part agenda for improving conditions. These are recommendations, not evidence that the measures have been adopted or that they have improved vendors’ lives.

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  1. Recognize vendors inclusively and designate vending areas. The proposal addresses vendors’ place in urban spaces and the need for designated locations.
  2. Expand financial inclusion and social security. This responds to financial vulnerability and the limited protections associated with precarious work.
  3. Provide health and safety programs. The recommendation addresses health and labor concerns in vending work.
  4. Make governance transparent and enforcement accountable. The authors call for anti-harassment measures and more accountable enforcement.
  5. Strengthen community engagement. This recognizes the role of community support in vendors’ lives and coping.

The article does not establish whether these proposals have been implemented or describe current enforcement conditions. They should be read as the authors’ policy agenda rather than as a report of verified policy outcomes.

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How this evidence differs from related studies

Study Location and period Focus
Romero, Paulino, Tan, and Cortez (2024) Divisoria, Quiapo, and Pritil, Manila Experiences and coping among stationary vendors, with interviews with barangay officials. Article.
Gomez and Recio (2013) Around Monumento Station, Caloocan Contested sidewalks, roads, corners, and easements, and vendor needs and aspirations in relation to existing laws. This is a Caloocan case, not a study of the same Manila sites. Article.
Recio, Gomez, Nguyen, and Thai (2022) Manila and Hanoi during the COVID-19 period How vendors’ grassroots self-help practices interacted with governance arrangements during the pandemic. It is comparative, pandemic-period research, not a current account of all Manila vending. Article.

Together, these studies offer different lenses: the 2024 article centers vendors’ lived experiences in three Manila market areas; the 2013 research examines contested public space in Caloocan; and the 2022 comparative work considers pandemic-era self-help and governance in Manila and Hanoi. Their locations, timeframes, and questions should remain distinct.

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  • Sturdy: The rolling vending cart with striped canopy crafted from thickened premium tubing, it boasts exceptional resilience and a stable structure. With a load capacity of up to 200kg, it effortlessly supports stacked bundles of clothing or heavy cooking utensils and ingredients without deformation.
  • Easy Mobility: The folding vendor stall cart equipped with 360° swivel casters, vendors can effortlessly reposition the stall. Durable and quiet, these wheels minimize disruption to surrounding areas and crowds.
  • Space-Saving: Features foldable and detachable components, significantly reducing storage space requirements. Simplifies transportation and storage, saving considerable time and effort to enhance operational efficiency.
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What readers should take from the study

The 2024 findings show how economic pressures, family responsibilities, business operations, health, community relationships, and regulation can intersect for stationary vendors in the sites studied. They also document varied ways participants cope and set out policy proposals. The study is valuable as a close account of particular vendor experiences, but it cannot stand in for every vendor in Manila, mobile sellers, other Philippine cities, or current enforcement practices.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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