Street Vendors are Synonyms to Social Sensations
Street vendors across Los Angeles have had many battles trying to keep their small businesses running. With the power of social media, street vending has shifted to the main stream.
With the growing popularity of food Tik Tok, the food vending scene around Los Angeles has changed. From the large-scale and regulated night markets, like 626, to small food trucks. A lot of buzz around your business can never be a bad thing. However, the consequences might be direr than some might think. Avenue 26 is a good example of this. In 2021, the impromptu street market blew up on Tik Tok and drew in thousands of people. This sudden influx of people created problems for the residents who lived around the market. Eventually, this led to the market moving to a different location and scaling down. We talked to vendors about their experience with social media and it has affected their business.
61-year-old, Maura Cruz has been a street vendor since 2017. She shared the struggles she faced while selling her delicious Pupusas. One of them has been food permit issues and the second, issue resulted from COVID-19. In 2021, a Tik Tok user documented the best street vendors around Downtown LA which happened to show a clip of Cruz’s Pupusas and vending spot. The captured video went viral resulting in Cruz’s vending spot being filled with a line.
“During 2020, I was still here despite the shutdown. That Tik Tok video definitely helped make up for the money I couldn’t get during that time.”
We also created a map of popular food vendors and night markets based on a survey with 31 responses. The map is organized into places that we have visited with descriptions of what we found there. The rest are locations yet to be visited by us, but still worth exploring.
Los Angeles is known for having one of the highest populations of food vendors in the country. Now, that food scene is spilling into the surrounding communities like the Antelope Valley (AV). Before the pandemic hit, Palmdale and Lancaster were food deserts with only big chain fast food options. Within the last couple of years, there has been an explosion of food trucks and street vendors taking residence in the AV.
Esperanza Miranda is the 22 year old owner of Culichi Sushi, which serves Mexican style sushi out of a food stall. Miranda started the business in 2020 during the pandemic because she was working two jobs and felt undervalued at both.
“I started when my dad went to prison. I had to look for a job and I was working two jobs at that time. I decided to quit because it wasn’t paying me enough and they weren’t valuing me enough either. Then I thought of Culichi Sushi and doing that for a living.”
Miranda also runs a successful Instagram page for her business with over 3,000 followers.
“When I’m not answering people through Instagram I’m posting something, so I would say half my day goes to making sushi and posting things.”
Promoting on social media has helped Miranda’s business be successful and has allowed people to find her.
“That’s how people usually find me, through my Instagram and pictures. That’s usually how people get to know me.”
The recent passing of California Senate Bill 972 is intended to update and simplify current codes on street vending by cutting through the legal red tape and streamlining the process of obtaining certification. SB 972 will change the requirements needed to obtain a permit while buying a health department food cart and also creates a uniform model of food carts for vendors to purchase.
Whether or not SB 972 addresses these changes to the street vending remains to be seen. However, it is imperative that any future legislation be aimed at protecting the lives and livelihoods of vendors while ensuring the safety and integrity of the communities in which they operate.
