“Only people who can earn can stay in Bangalore: everything is expensive here – even daal chawal.”
TOOLS
His covered push-cart carries his goods around Yelahanka.
He hangs a couple of items on hangers to advertise the kind of goods he sells.
MATERIALS
He sells ready-made goods bought wholesale from City Market.
His goods include items of clothing for various age-groups.
CONSUMPTION
His trade requires only monetary consumption.
He spends part of his profits on replenishing his stock of goods.
And a very small amount on the maintenance of his push-cart.
Time and energy is also consumed on his walking around Yelahanka looking for potential customers.
SKILL
His trade skills include stamina, as he needs to keep at it in all kinds of weather.
He knows Hindi and Kannada to be able to communicate with a wider group of people.
ECOLOGY
His business provides an income to wholesale businesses in City Market.
His income comes in small amounts from the pockets of people attracted by his stock and is spent on his family and his children’s education.
STRATEGY
He personally travels to City Market to buy goods in bulk at wholesale prices.
He buys things he thinks he will sell although his judgement of the market demand is not very good.
His strategy consists of roaming around with his push-cart waiting for customers to spot him and come to him.
His strategy does not work very well as he does not get a lot of customers.
For example, he stopped for sometime very near a larger clothes sale – which made his slightly higher priced business redundant.
He speaks to his customers in their own language.
SPACE
His space is the road. He roams around with his push-cart, traveling down busy roads.
GEOGRAPHY
He carries out his trade only in the streets of Yelahanka – New Town and Old Town and adjoining areas. He trades on foot and push-cart and hence does not travel very far except when he goes to City Market every Sunday.
He earns barely enough to feed his family and pay for the education of both his children. He also has to use part of his profits to replenish his stock.
PEOPLE
He caters to people looking for everyday wear or handkerchiefs.
The number of customers he gets is very small and hardly anything sells.
MONEY
He started off with goods worth an approximate amount of 5000 rupees which included credit from the wholesalers.
He worked off his debts over the first five years but he doesn’t sell a lot of things which results in him having to price his goods higher.
He says he has hardly any income and prices have gone up, making it difficult for him to make both ends meet.
LIVING
Baadshah comes from Chikballapur where he worked as a farmer but did not earn enough money because there was no rain and nothing grew. He moved to Old Yelahanka 11 years ago and lives with his wife and two children, who are both in school. He says he barely earns enough to sustain his family and keeps going only to be able to offer his children a better life than his.
BUYERS
He has hardly any customers – if people are attracted by his ware come and buy – but these people are few.
OUR EXPERIENCE TALKING TO HIM
We talked to him as researchers interested in his business and the problems he faces. He was very forthcoming about his story – especially his grievances. What came across when we talked to him was the hardships he faced. He mentioned how his feet ache – and how the prices were going up.
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