[Sanxiaxiang Program] Street-Stall Economy: Vibrant Urban Street Life
2020-09-10
During the summer holiday of 2020, HUTB’s Street Stall Investigation Squad, a survey team under the Sanxiaxiang Program involving the popularization of cultural, technological and medical knowledge in rural areas, conducted a series of surveys on the subject of “Impacts on Urban Life Management from Street-Stall Economy”. These surveys were carried out via “Internet + social practices”, a new model which relies on online information query supplemented by an offline field visit. These activities were aimed to put Xi Jinping’s thoughts on socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era fully into effect and to understand the current situation of Changsha’s street-stall economy under the flexible employment policy.
The street-stall economy refers to an economic form where people gain incomes through street vending and is regarded as a kind of marginalized economy due to its controversial legality. The street-stall economy has a longhistory. It once played a remarkable role in solving unemployment and even set off a wave of entrepreneurship in the 1980s and 1990s. Later, street stalls were prohibited in almost all cities around the country for the improvements of urban quality and image. However, amid the current regular epidemic prevention and control, small street stalls display their vitality and charm again. Thus, it is of great significance to restart the street-stall economy. With its unique advantages, the street-stall economy functions as a certain “social lubricant”. It can not only broaden employment channels for massive labors, but also provide citizens with flexible and diversified services to stimulate consumer demand and to drive economic growth.
On May 27, 2020, the Central Commission for Guiding Cultural and Ethical Progress explicitly announced that street markets and floating vendors would not be included as adverse factors in the evaluation of model cities in cultural and ethical progress, in a bid to more actively promote the recovery of economic and social order and to meet people’s needs in the construction of model cities in cultural and ethical progress. On July 31, the General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Supporting Multi-channel Flexible Employment, requiring regional governments to remove unreasonable restrictions on flexible employment, to strengthen policy service supply, to create more flexible employment opportunities, and to stimulate laborers’ entrepreneurial vitality and innovation potential. A series of policy documents easing the restrictions on the street-stall economy demonstrates the mutual accommodation between public power and people’s rights for livelihood. On August 8, to further understand the truth of Changsha’s “street-stall” management, the members of the Street Stall Investigation Squad went to the Hexi Better Life Business District nearby for the field visit.
The policy support has boom the street-stall economy. During the visit, the team members learned that a remarkably larger number of people set up street stalls this year, including some young followers. That has injected fresh blood into the street-stall economy and brought pressure on competition and management as well. Some “newcomers” occupied fixed booths or set up stalls at non-standard spots due to the unfamiliarity with relevant rules and the weak consciousness of standardized operation. It is all known that the contradictory relationship between street vendors and city inspectors have existed for decades. However, by talking with the patrolling city inspectors, the team members learned that the contradiction is not that complicated and irreconcilable. As long as the vendors run their businesses within the designated scope, there will be no contradictions. And with the development of information technology, the application of regional digital management has also helped reconcile their relationship.
Due to the impact from the epidemic, the street-stall economy faces huge opportunities and challenges. In terms of opportunities, the street-stall economy, a most primitive and vital business activity of mankind, can right inject new vitality into the epidemic-affected society and contribute to economic adjustments and recovery. On the morning of June 1, 2020, Li Keqiang, Premier of the State Council said during his inspection in Yantai, Shandong that the street-stall and small-store economy is an important source of employment and human culinary culture, and a part of China's livelihood just as much as larger, high-end businesses. The central government’s move to encourage the street-stall economy aims to promote employment and increase the incomes of low-income groups. Meanwhile, that also helps to ease the economic pressure on the government and cities.
The challenges for the street-stall economy come from various aspects. For urban inspectors, increasing street vendors have brought larger pressure on urban management and more prominent impacts on residents’ living environment. These vendors also face some pressure as consumers are becoming more dependent on online consumption and influencer marketing during the special epidemic period. In the visit, the team members learned from many vendors that they have not gained satisfactory incomes from street stalls in the first half of this year, even though the government has issued the policy to exempt administration fees. How to respond to and solve a series of management problems in the booming “street-stall economy” supported by national policies? How to find an innovative path amid the popular online consumption? They have formeda new round of challenges following the traditional contradiction between city inspectors and street vendors. (Reported by Liu Yilong)
