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As we probably all know, homelessness is a huge problem, that has only increased since the election of the effing Tories. And I'm sure we all have our own way of doing what we can for those who are less fortunate than ourselves when we can.
That said, I have no interest in the Big Issue, yet often want to be able to talk to, or offer something to, those that sell it. The problem is, the message I get is that the whole point is that we buy - and take - the magazine.
As excellent as the idea has been, I wonder if it isn't time for a re-vamp. I mean no one actually reads it any more; do they?
My preference has always been to sit down with someone for a coffee - moreso now that Tim Hortons is in town!
So what do you lot think? Is it time for the charity that runs the Big Issue to look at a new model? Or is it just me, and I should really pay for and take the merchandise?
Isnt the whole point is it's a job of sorts so is supposed to help them into a routine.
I suppose it could be phone batteries or anything but presumably a small/cheep magazine is still quite a high margin item so the seller gets more of the revenue?
I stick mine in the pocket of my rucsack, virtue signaling and not having to constantly decline further issues every morning in one!
We had a regular friendly guy at our tesco doorway.. Interesting to chat to, and pretty level headed... Well turned out....pretty engaging but just down on his luck..
We often asked him on the way in, if he wanted something and we would see him on the way out... Bought him some sarnies or a bite to eat, gave him the price of the big issue but insisted he kept it so he could earn off it twice..
He was a regular for a year and then scored a job, moved on and got things back together.
moreso now that Tim Hortons is in town!
So what do you lot think?
I think Tim Hortons needs to re-think its roll out in the UK. The mountains of packaging they serve up, even to people sitting in, overwhelms both the bins in the store and the staffing available to do any clearing up. By 3pm most branches look like abandoned traveller camps.
🙂
And the coffee is shite.
As Nobeer put it so well, their coffee, nandos chicken and krispy cream doughnuts are vastly over rated.
As for the big issue.
As a habitual gig-goer in my teens we would regularly buy the big issue from the seller who would be stood outside the gig venues of Glasgow. I seem to remember it came with a rather extensive music review section that we would trawl over while waiting on the band to start with our pints of cider and black.
Maybe it's now that I'm in city centre less or my town has no seller that I'm aware off iv not seen it being sold for sometime. I just assumed it had succumbed to being an online type thing now. Not sure how that would work mind you.
I remember reading that it was a job you could get of you were homeless and could only keep if you kept to a sober lifestyle.
I imagine it has done a lot of people a lot of good over the years.
Mission for this weekend while I'm out in the big smoke for festive drinks it to seek out and buy a copy.
I don't buy it anymore. The vendors who provide it near me are pro's and not homeless.
The vendors who provide it near me are pro’s and not homeless.
Isn't that a bit of a myth, tory press propaganda to blame the victims in society and make it acceptable to treat them as vermin.
I don't know msp , i don't read the tory press.But I do know where the vendors near me live. They commute to their pitch.
Tim Horton? The Canadian diishwater vendor? In what universe is there a place for them on the UK high street?
The BI vendor in Evesham has been doing it for as long as I can remember so it's either not working for her or working very well ideed.
My brother did it for a while and managed to score a patch outside M&S in Cheltenham. He was living as a new age traveller at the time, taking his washing home to mummy and heading back to the camp with all sorts of home cooked meals...
He was often bought hats, gloves and scarves by little old ladies and was often paid 20 quid for the magazine. He even got a business card from a scout for one of the top model agencies, I guess they were looking for rough handsome, rather than rugged handsome.
<span class="skimlinks-unlinked">senor j</span>
<span class="skimlinks-unlinked">But</span> I do know where the vendors near me live. They commute to their pitch.
Isn't that the whole point of The Big Issue? To get homeless folk back into a routine, show potential employers they can turn up for work each day. Encourage them to find and live in permanent accommodation?
But I guess it is shocking that somebody that once was homeless can manage to find somewhere to live and keep a low paid job at the same time.
Would it be better if the chap you see, who now lives in a house, travels to work and does a low paid job was just forced out of his house and living on the streets? Just so that we all know he isn't living in a house?
What would the tory press (that señor j doesn't read) make of it eh........
I'm right of centre politically and I buy it. They are standing out there selling it in all sorts of weather so I've got a lot of respect for them. And they all seem very friendly and cheerful. I don't agree with all of the articles in it but I read them as it's good to get other points of view in your life. Then it goes in the recycling.
In the past I had a bit of a "get off your backside and get a job" attitude to some folk. And that's exactly what the Big Issue sellers have done, so full marks to them.
<span class="skimlinks-unlinked">But</span> I do know where the vendors near me live. They commute to their pitch.
How do you know this exactly? I suspect the Big Issue themselves would be interested to know if their charity is being abused. I don't think the BI is limited to homeless people, just those who need some help.
But in any case. It seems to me that people cite such instances to justify not caring, because it's easier. Surely it's better to give a few quid to cheaters as well as the needy rather than ignore the needy because there are some cheaters?
Re the mag - I read it usually, it's not bad.
I know this exactly because I see them leaving their house. I happen to stop at a petrol station ,5 miles away,regularly on my way to work. They live over the road from the garage.
Are you sure it's their own house or are they just sleeping there?
Homeless does not always mean sleeping on the streets.
Why isn't that a good thing? If they have got themselves back on their feet, isn't that to be celebrated?
It's not just for the homeless it's for those in poverty to try and build an income by investment. If they've found a better pitch away from their area then that shows good investment sense to me.
Fair enough. Yes they ought to be congratulated.It must be a lucrative business to continue to operate for over 5 years. The cynic in me prefers to help charities of my choice.
I also refuse to buy off the folk who knock on your door selling overpriced cleaning utensils.
No idea, never bought it, never intend to.
My lad does sometimes ask me for money to give to the homeless people we sometimes see, so i do that.... But it's not often as we rarely go to towns.
I buy it occasionally, have a chat with them and then give them a £10 for it and bin the mag when I get home as it was full of rubbish the last time I actually read one. Mind you can't do the chat thing too often, some of their stories are uttlerly depressing; not sure I could take too many without a good break inbetween.
Plenty of sellers in Cardiff and the distributing office is one of my clients. The idea is that you have to be 'homeless' when you are awarded a sellers license and a patch to work then use that as a springboard to find other work but there are a lot of sellers that have been doing it for years, as long as you behave and sell well you can't really be sacked! There's a oldish lady who currently sells on Wellfield Road who I've seen selling for over a decade in various places. I used to buy from the guy who was on Queen Street who would juggle the bound bundles of magazines but he was so good he got offered a job by someone in a local office so he's now gone. Being a seller is an actual job, not a charity position which is where some people get confused and there is real competition for the prime spots too. It's a worthy charity but it has become a bit of a victim of it's success, with too many applicants and not enough spaces.
I don't buy it any more though as the issues son't refresh often enough and I'd feel guilty for only buying from one seller so what I do now is if a client (I'm a courier so places like restaurants, cafes etc) gives me a free drink or a snack (which happens most days) I'll offer them that as it saves them buying lunch, plus if I ate all the freebies I got every day I'd be a right fat heffer!
BI is all about perception. I get what it is and applaud it's values but if your local experience is slightly tarnished by doubt it does make it hard to keep the faith with. We have had the same lady as a big issue selling in our town centre since I started working here in 2006. We've kind of grown old together. Thing is she is always on the phone. By that I don't mean I see her on the phone a lot, I mean quite literally always on the phone. I don't know how she makes enough money to make it worthwhile when you are trying to do it with one hand clamped to your ear and you are constantly talking. By coincidence my in laws live about 20 miles away and she is regularly seen there too - can you have two pitches? If you are in the town square at 5.30 you are certain to see her being picked up by a chap in a sub three year old German car. He might just be a friendly guy giving her a lift. Every day. For the last 12 years. But the kiss on the lips as she gets in the car would be a bit weird if that was the case. It could be entirely innocent and she is a genuinely 'worthy' person to do the job but if that is the case she needs to work on her pr.
Considerably worse out there mind. Wife was in London yesterday and was in one of those subterranean public toilets. Shared a couple words with a lady using the sink next to her - reason being the girl's crutches were leaning on the sink and she asked if she needed a hand. The girl said no she was fine, picked up the crutches and jogged up the stairs back to ground level. 30mins later she saw the same girl begging in Trafalgar Square - only she was now facially distorted doing her best Joey Deacon impression complete with guttural noises, body hunched with the crutches as literal props for the act.
Genuine homelessness is such a huge issue, which makes people praying on the public's generosity and diverting it to those not in real need even worse.
I consciously stopped buying it when a 50-ish woman of (probably) Albanian heritage started selling it outside our local Co-op. Only at lunchtime. For the week before Christmas. Middle of a residential area in Wirral. No shops to speak of within 30 min walk, i.e., no other reason to be there.
Happened to see her one day just around the corner from the shops being collected in a nice, pretty new merc.
Something smells like the contents of Baldrick's apple crumble.
The BI vendor in Evesham has been doing it for as long as I can remember
Small world! Always stands by WHSmiths. I'm only back in the 'Sham every two years or so and she's been there without fail for as long as I can remember.
I used to buy the occasional Big Issue but didn't enjoy reading it, it was just a donation in my mind. These days all the sellers round my way tend to be middle-eastern and have been doing the same patch for many years. As has been said, that rather defeats the purpose as I understood it. If I look at it as just a business then it is a business selling something I don't want in a slightly aggressive manner. I find myself avoiding the places where these people are selling, and then I resent that. If I want to help homeless people I'll look elsewhere.
I used to do subbing shifts at the BI so I had to read it then. God in heaven, it was boring. I mean subbing is a boring job anyway but when you're subbing the BI... 9am till 6pm. I thought then hands on the clock would never move.
Bought one the other day from a man outside the Coop and realised that the impossible has happened and it's actually got worse!
How is BI distributed to the vendors? I assume for vendors in some places it must be quite a trek to collect? Or can they be mailed to vendors if they have a friend or relative willing to receive the mags for them?
Isn't the done thing nowadays to offhandedly refer to how charitable you are by posting a thread about your charitable giving on a thinly-veiled pretext? 😉
If you want to donate without a magazine, set up a direct debit to Shelter or BI for the amount that you want to donate