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AyRojgar
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Mixed experienceA pushcart vegetable seller in Manikganj, in a Prothom Alo report

500-700 taka of vegetables a day, 100-150 taka of profit

Twenty-five years of hawking vegetables from a pushcart: 500-700 taka of sales a day, 100-150 taka of profit, stock bought fresh each morning.

This 65-year-old woman from Mehendibag village in Manikganj has pushed a vegetable cart through the streets for about 25 years, since her husband died. Each morning she buys stock at the Bhatbaur and Jagir wholesale markets and sells 500-700 taka of vegetables through the day, keeping 100-150 taka of profit. A day's stock is bought and sold the same day, so very little is lost to rot. She lives on inherited land with her youngest son's family; one son sells jhalmuri and the other drives a battery auto-rickshaw. The trade has kept her independent for a quarter of a century, but it has never grown beyond the single cart.

Lessons

  1. 1.Pushcart vegetables need almost no capital and return almost as little: 100-150 taka on a 500-700 taka day
  2. 2.Buying at the wholesale market yourself each morning keeps the margin, and same-day stock does not rot

Published with the person's permission, without revealing who they are.

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