LIVED EXPERIENCES OF STREET VENDORS IN CATBALOGAN CITY: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY

Abstract

Street vendors play an integral part of the world’s economies, contributing to thriving retail markets and providing a diverse range of affordable, accessible goods and services to every consumer. Street vending also provides a source of income for those with limited employment opportunities, such as migrants and internally displaced people. From the standpoint of business studies, it is useful to categorize street vendors into different groups based on the variables that may be observed in their working style.  As a result, they can be classified as nomadic or permanent. Other categories include the type of goods or services given, the method of product procurement, and whether or not franchising or branding is used. By understanding the experiences of the street vendors, their challenges and ways of coping will be beneficial to everyone who faced the same situation and to what measures can be used to face the challenges. Qualitative research design was utilized to explore and determine the experiences of the participants in this study. Six vendors were interviewed in this study, meeting the saturation point. Phenomenologically, the responses of the participants were interpreted to further understand their lived experiences from the phenomenon. In this study, the researcher used a non-probability sampling design, specifically purposive sampling with the help of a selection criteria that aided the researcher locate the informants. Data was collected using semi-structured interview guide, an in-depth interview. This study concluded that street vending has become an important source of employment for large numbers of urban populations, and that vending-activities play an important socio-economic role especially as a coping mechanism for low-income households. In connection, vendors depend on many factors to live and continue their business. This study will be useful to the other street vendors towards the coping strategies used by the participants, the government to help create interventions for the vendors, and to future researchers that will conduct related studies.