“We have become neglected and hunted down by a government whose only concern is to serve shopkeepers and businessmen who offer it money,” said Ahmed Abdulaziz, a 34-year-old pedlar. “As for us, to hell with our degrees so long as the shop owners are satisfied.”

“We have become neglected and hunted down by a government whose only concern is to serve shopkeepers and businessmen who offer it money,” said Ahmed Abdulaziz, a 34-year-old pedlar. “As for us, to hell with our degrees so long as the shop owners are satisfied.”

Alexandria’s street salesmen have repeatedly faced police harassment, but the shopkeepers see them as a threat to their livelihoods, too.

In search for work

Abdulaziz received his diploma as an electrician in 1993, and then spent a long time searching for a job. A contractor took him on, but only on a demolition site, and Abdulaziz soon grew frustrated and quit. He worked in restaurants, shops, and cafés, but he was never happy, feeling mistreated by his employers. He thought of travelling abroad, but being the breadwinner of his family – his mother and three sisters – he was denied that opportunity.

“After four years of working in sundry jobs, I had saved only L.E. 70 [$10],” he said. “So I decided to be self-employed and with the rest of my money I bought some posters, pictures, and tablecloths to sell in front of the El-Mensheya Central station in downtown Alexandria.”

The first day went off peacefully. He made a profit that was almost equal to what he invested. But on the second day, a man approached Abdulaziz demanding a tribute of L.E. 20 to allow him to stay. When he asked the man who he was, he was simply told he was a big man in the market. “A thug surrounded by other thugs to protect him and ensure that his orders are obeyed,” as Abdulaziz put it. The man was running a protection racket, and using his police connections to keep vendors informed of anticipated raids. “So I had to succumb to his request and pay him the tribute,” said Abdulaziz. “But I still managed to make good profits every day – much more than the money I used to earn with my work for the contractor or in cafés.”

Scuffles with shop owners

“The protection payment varies from one person to the next,” said Adel, another vendor, who sells dozens of shirts and trousers. “Depending on the amount of merchandise, it ranges from L.E. 25 to 70 a day. Those who refuse to pay are kicked out of the market.” The vendors also face daily harassment and sometimes fights with shop owners, especially since Egypt’s economic situation began to deteriorate and they can undercut the shopkeepers. “While we sell a shirt for L.E. 30, its price in the shops is no less than L.E. 100,” said Adel.

Adel was actually trained as a lawyer, but says he gave up the profession because he didn’t want to cause injustice to innocent people, or help the oppressors against the oppressed. “True, we wrong shopkeepers, but we could not find another way to earn a living,” he said. “After all, we do not compel customers to purchase from us, while the shop’s customers refuse to buy from us despite all the special prices we offer.”

Police raids

What street vendors fear most are police raids. “They confiscate our merchandise, impose a hefty fine, steal our goods, and destroy some of them,” said Adel. “And then they charge us with many things, including begging, road obstruction, unlicensed trading, theft of electricity, and many other accusations. The majority of hawkers to leave their goods on the street and run away.”

Abdulaziz says that all street vendors steal electricity from the street lamps to sell their goods in the evening, and an electrician charges them L.E. 20 per day for re-routing the wiring. “But then in 2009 overloads and a short circuit led to a large fire that destroyed the market and burned dozens of cars, wooden counters and all the goods, mostly fabrics.”

Destroyed livelihoods

Abdul Fattah Sanhouri, a clothes shop owner in the El-Mensheya district, thinks of the pedlars as a cancer on the body of Alexandria. He believes the “thugs and unemployed people” who use the pavements to sell their defective goods have distorted Alexandria’s image and destroyed the livelihoods of many shopkeepers.

“Encouraged by the bad economic situation that has befallen the country since the revolution, the number of pedlars has dramatically increased over the past two years, because there was no deterrent,” he said. “True their goods are cheap, but most of them are fake because they replace the labels with others carrying global brands.”

Sanhouri also points out that the shops have to charge higher prices because of all their overheads: taxes, wages, insurance, rent, and electricity and water bills. “We are also required to bear the expenses of removing street vendors’ trash,” he said. “May God punish them for the destruction they caused to our livelihood.”

A large makeshift market

Alexandria has more than eighty makeshift markets where hundreds of thousands of salesmen work. These markets sell everything, but they are almost completely unregulated. The vendors at the Religious Institute market in eastern Alexandria, which specializes in vegetables and traditional clothing, often sell their goods in the middle of the road, obstructing cars and pedestrians.

The Libya market, in the El-Mensheya district, specializes in clothes, while the Egypt Station market is considered by some the most anarchic market in Egypt, where hawkers risk major disasters by selling their goods on the rail tracks.

Help and regulation

“The authorities must create job opportunities for young people to solve this issue, which has caused havoc in Alexandria,” said Suad, an engineer who complains of the spread of criminality in the markets. She says that makeshift markets have turned into a safe haven for sexual predators, because the police keep out of the markets and street vendors know and protect each other.

Police launched several raids late June to clamp down on the criminal control over makeshift markets. Alexandria Governor Major General Tariq Mahdi says the municipal authorities removed a number of unregulated markets that had mushroomed after Egypt’s revolution. The authorities, says Mahdi, are planning to set up a market for affected street vendors in an alternative location under the Awayed Bridge, which will accommodate 2,000 two-by-two-metre kiosks.

Abdulaziz is not convinced by the plan. He says makeshift markets will inevitably spring up again because the planned alternative market is a long way from populated areas and customers. “The state should fund small enterprises for young people with micro credits, and implementing new employment projects, instead of stopping their sources of income,” he said. “Failing this, the government should send them to prison if it wants to get rid of them – but then again, the government cannot afford that solution, considering how many hawkers there are.”