When Adam Smith warned about the “interested sophistry of merchants” in The Wealth of Nations, he was criticizing businessmen who sought government protection from competition in eighteenth-century Great Britain. But his argument remains relevant in today’s New York. A recent New York Post article detailed complaints from city grocers about fruit vendors located outside their stores. The industry wants city hall to act on its behalf—notwithstanding the interests of consumers.
It wouldn’t be the first time the city has cracked down on street vendors. Of the estimated 20,000 active vendors, only a few thousand hold permits, thanks to a decades-old, government-imposed cap. In the last year, more than half of the 1,400 tickets issued by enforcement officers were for vending without a license “with no other offenses listed,” according to a Gothamist analysis. This despite promises from Mayor Eric Adams’s administration that it would not ticket solely for unlicensed vending.
Reasonable quality-of-life concerns do exist about the increase in unlicensed street vendors. Vending can bring negative consequences including left-out trash, blocked sidewalks, and too much smoke. Street vendors should be good stewards of their blocks; ticketing them for such violations is clearly justified. As Nicole Gelinas has written, “The first step to a better vending system is rational, predictable enforcement of existing laws.”
The root of the problem is the city’s refusal to issue new licenses. Vendors contribute to a healthy market that meets consumer demand at various price points, in various situations, and at various times of day. Thanks to low overhead, street vendors can sell products at lower prices than brick-and-mortar competitors. Often they buy ripe fruits and vegetables from wholesalers trying to move produce quickly and cheaply before it spoils. Having bought products at a discount, vendors can pass savings on to customers while preventing wasteful spoilage.
The wide dispersal of street vendors also adds to the vitality of Gotham’s streets. Visitors see New York’s charm in the hustle of vendors staying open past midnight. Though it might seem trivial to care whether apples or Christmas trees are available for purchase after a nightcap, New York is, after all, “the city that never sleeps.”
These ’round-the-clock vendors also serve an important public-safety function, ensuring “eyes on the street” at all hours. Street vendors represent an important group of permanent observers who can deter would-be criminals—a service they perform for free. Moreover, saying hello to the same vendors during one’s early-morning walk to work creates a reassuring sense of safety and community. Sure, the line may be thin between “vitality” and “nuisance,” but enforcement can ensure that the boundary is respected.
Street vending is also an important entrepot into the business world for people of modest means. From the humble beginnings of street vending, many businesses have bloomed. Nathan Handwerker, of Nathan’s Hot Dogs, was a Jewish-Polish immigrant who started his first hot dog stand in 1916. William Wrigley, Jr. left Philadelphia for Chicago with $32 in his pocket and got his start peddling soap and baking powder before discovering a market for chewing gum. Their street-vending days provided them with the lessons and capital necessary to become business leaders.
With the city struggling to accommodate the influx of Venezuelan migrants (who can work legally through their Temporary Protected Status designation), street vending offers an opportunity for orderly self-reliance. Washington, D.C., by contrast, has very little street vending. There, many Venezuelan newcomers have taken to delivery driving, sometimes recklessly, on mopeds. Without street vending as an option, New York City’s migrant population might gravitate toward risky ventures more than they already have.
Current policy works against the city’s flourishing. With thousands of unlicensed street vendors in operation, those with proper licenses may reasonably feel that they are being undermined by illegal competition. The city is inadvertently teaching newcomers that trying to do things legally is futile. And, by going back on promises not to ticket solely for unlicensed vending, the city government is not acting in good faith.
Making it easier to obtain licenses would give more credibility to enforcement. If every street vendor can get a license and is able to operate according to the same rules as their competitors, there will be more scope to rein in vendors who occupy too much space, or who litter or otherwise pose a public nuisance. Offering more vendor licenses would unlock cheaper products for New Yorkers, provide more opportunities for immigrants, and legitimize an enforcement system that operates in good faith to mitigate negative effects. Whether the city can look past the “interested sophistry of merchants” and recognize the opportunity is anyone’s guess.
Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images