MADINAH, 6 November 2005 — For many people, the break for the Eid holiday is a time for family or perhaps a trip, but some young men in Madinah use the break to become sidewalk merchants and rake in riyals. Shopkeepers complain their business and profits go down because of them.

The sidewalk merchants sell everything from sweets, clothing and shoes to food or coffee. They try to stay one step ahead of police and municipal officials; if they’re caught their stock is seized as contraband, but the markups the middlemen can make prompts them to take the risk. Angry shopkeepers wage a constant war against them.

“Work is work,” said Hashim A., an engineer from Yanbu. “I make money when I work as an engineer, and I make money working this seasonal job. It’s my free time, and I want to make sure it’s useful. What people should be ashamed of is sitting at home doing nothing when they could use their free time to make good money. I am an engineer, and, trust me, on one of these sidewalks there is a doctor and a teacher. If I work extra hard, I can make more than SR3,000, which is good.”

He buys Eid clothing from Jeddah and sells them here at low prices. “If I pay SR7 for an ‘igal’, I sell it for SR15, which is an attractive price, yet I am making double. If I sell 40 of them a day, then that is a very good day.” The engineer said he isn’t doing anything wrong.

“The market is open to everyone, yet the municipality harasses us when we’re trying to make a living,” he said. “They chase us from the sidewalks and from shopping centers — all to please shop owners who have no right to harass us.”

Confrontations sometimes occur between the sidewalk vendors and the shopkeepers. Near Al-Gharbeya souk, the shoe business got ugly when a street vendor and a shop owner clashed. He was pushing the young man and threatening to call the municipality if he didn’t leave. The man simply ignored and started to sell to customers already gathered around him to buy shoes for as little as SR10. Minutes later, municipality officials showed up and the seasonal sellers closed down and disappeared with the goods, returning to the same location after officials left.

“We fulfill the needs of poor people looking for new clothes at low prices,” said Sultan Al-Saadi, a 19 year-old high-school student who is working with his brothers selling clothes. “These poor people are fed up with the businessmen’s greed to make money off this season. We’re unwanted by these businessmen, but we’re wanted by the people.”

Al-Saadi said it wasn’t just poor folk who were buying. “I wouldn’t be joking if I told you that secretly municipality officials and police officers are buying from us because they’re looking for good products and good prices,” he said.

Ramadan and Eid are the busiest time of the year for many stores, and businessmen counting on good sales figures say the sidewalk sellers hurt their bottom line.

“We pay rent and an electricity bill,” said Mutee Al-Oufi, a Quba clothier. “I don’t object to them selling because they have the right, but they drive prices down and kill my business. They don’t have to rent a store because they can use any sidewalk, and they don’t pay electricity bills. It’s unfair that in this season I can’t make the profit I need. They’re harming me, and what they’re doing is illegal.”

“Businessmen think that they own the market, and we have no right to take our share. We have the right; the market is open for everybody,” said Al-Saadi.