Street vendors flock to Baghdad for demonstrators’ business
The regular popular demonstrations being held in Baghdad every Friday are not just good for the country's democracy, they're proving an invaluable business opportunity for vendors of street food, water and coffee and trinkets. Business is so good in fact, that Iraqis like Jawad Rabee have come all the way from Dhi Qar province to sell […]Mustafa Sadoun writes for Niqash:
The regular popular demonstrations being held in Baghdad every Friday are not just good for the country's democracy, they're proving an invaluable business opportunity for vendors of street food, water and coffee and trinkets.
Business is so good in fact, that Iraqis like Jawad Rabee have come all the way from Dhi Qar province to sell water bottles. Rabee says that back home he usually sells water at military checkpoints where people have to queue to get through. But he thought that the demonstrations in the capital would be a good opportunity to do better business.
He was right: On an ordinary day Rabee says he would have sold about 25 boxes of water bottles – so around 300 bottles. Now every Friday he goes to Tahrir Square in central Baghdad and sells around 1,500 bottles. With the profit he makes from one Friday, he can survive all week.
