Street-smart sales execs who excel in their job

Hawkers order products from other states and pay through online mode

Hawkers who swarm around your car at a traffic junction with curios and offer a good bargain, seem to know their job well. They are no less than those urban sales executives who welcome you in shopping malls and super markets with a broad smile and warm queries. The street-side hawkers can sell a product worth `30 for `250, though they are part time beggars.

They buy products in bulk that are seasonal and trending. One day you might see them selling a bubble gun, the next week an umbrella and then, fairy light balloons or bottles. They purchase these products in from two major areas, Afzalgunj and Begum Bazaar, at low rates, or buy raw materials and manufacture their own products.

The making cost of a fairy light glass bottle is said to be `35 or `40. It is on offer for `250, though they are ready to offer huge bargain prices. Purchased in bulk, each glass bottle costs `5. For about 40 to 50 such bottles, fairy lights cost `15, colourful thread `40, thermocol balls `10-`15, gum tube `50 and a pair of scissors `10-20.

A person from a team purchases cartons of bubble guns from Begum Bazaar and sells the product to other units for a profit. The other teams divide the products among its members and earn profits. They do not have any leader as such.

Those who belong to Telangana have their own houses, but migrant gangs sleep on footpaths and use public toilets. They earn and make a lot of profit during festivals, and visit their hometown once every two months and relax for a few days. They keep moving from one traffic signal to another and one state to another where festivals are celebrated in a grand manner.

“As Bonalu is around the corner, we make our own toys like bow and arrow by using basic raw materials that we purchase at a cheaper rate and sell at a higher price. You find us in another state or another area depending on festivals,” said two gangs of hawkers whose home towns are in Karnataka and Maharashtra.

They also order products or raw materials from other states and pay through online mode.