Marchand Ambulant – Kitchen Utensils Seller – 1989
A now-rare village scene where these courageous hawkers or street vendors would overload themselves with the maximum items they could provide to their customers and would then roam the streets of their regions to earn their living. Back in the past, this was a common practice where in order to earn a decent living, these ‘talented’ (as it can seriously be considered so) sellers would be providing their customers with products like fresh milk, newspaper, coal, kitchen utensils, clothes, tin cans, etc by going from home to home or street to street to find potential buyers. Some of then already have their subscribed customers which was less of a hassle as their products were a guaranteed sell.
The most demanded of them was somehow the milkman (milk seller). The kitchen utensils seller as depicted in the picture was quite interesting too with how it was an entertaining view to see those bicycles of the time so loaded and still no trouble. Life in the past wasn’t so ‘accessible’ as of today as malls or hypermarkets didn’t exist then. One could obtain commodities either from nearby shops (laboutik) or from these hawkers. The good thing when buying from these hawkers was that the price usually were cheaper and delivery was at the door-step.
This article of Le Mauricien also talks about these modern street vendors in a modern era which certainly are ‘descendants’ of these mobile sellers. Today some streets of Port Louis and even in some other towns are crowded with these sellers in a modern style.
Some similar activities of the past:
