h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The Big Issue, as much as I think it is a good idea, I get really pissed off with some of the sellers tactics with loud, pattronising and over the top selling patter. They used to just shout "Issue, Big Issue" which was fine but I find this OTT and quite intimidating stuff some do quite pisses me off. It actually puts me off going to some local shops. Which of course reduces the takings of some local shops, when the seller isn't even from UK, it just makes it worse.

That must be local to you, Strangely. The Big Issue sellers local to me are very humble in how they sell it, and the ones I saw in Glasgow were just normal Big Issue sellers.

Could it be that you have a bogus vendor there? The Big Issue really don't like bogus vendors because they put people off buying - exactly as you've described. Might be worth getting in touch with your local Big Issue office to find out if the seller is bogus. There are links to the local BI branches in the second paragraph on this page here: http://www.bigissue.com/History_34.php Each of those web sites will have an email addy or contact form to contact the local office.

Good luck. The BI is a good organisation doing really useful work, both by helping homeless people out of the trap and by bringing their difficulties to the attention of more affluent people.

Even the better of the 2 who plonks himself outside the small Sainsbury's here makes it difficut not to buy one as keeps talking to people, most who have little money themselves. I have no odjection to someone who just shouts "Issue, Big Issue' but object to it even more as have to go in there several times a day sometimes as no small shop there anymore. I am on sick pay myself so get little myself.
It rankers that one BI seller not that far from me was earning £1,000 a week as sold so many as so easy to sell them there in a big town!

Strangely - wow, how do you know he was earning £1000 a week?

They caught him somehow, perhaps the amount he was selling, it was a big issue, sorry, bad pun, as clearly he was actually earning more than the people who were actually were working and giving him money, he disappeared and think that Big Issue sales people were banned from there, I haven't seen any more in that town. Perhaps even BI stopped people selling there as it caused so much resentment amoungst those who bought them.` I think I have even seen people give the BI sellers money and not take the magazine.
I think the pitch was a much prized pitch for BI sellers then. I have to be honest and say the fact that none of them are actualy even British pees people off too if keep getting hassled all the time. They don't even do it genuinely as just do it robotically and keep doing it even if continually walk past them as have too.

So how did you find out about this £1000 a week, Strangely? Was it a rumour or was it actually confirmed by the BI organisation? If the pitch was that good, it would make sense to split it between different sellers.

I often buy a BI for a couple of quid and don't ask for my change. I usually also give money in the street when someone asks me for it. I would rather be ripped off by con-artists than spurn someone who really needs it. And if they spend it on booze, then so what? I would. Alchohol is a good anaesthetic.

Selling the BI is such a good way to help very dis-empowered people take responsibility for quite a difficult thing (working out how many copies they need to buy - too many and they don't make any money, too few and they have to go backwards and forwards to get more). And BI vendors frequently get mugged for their money. How low do you have to stoop to mug a homeless person? It's their vulnerability and lack of protection that I feel for.

Whatever way you cut it, being homeless sucks, and it is something that all of us are only a rizla paper away from. There but for the grace of the god I don't believe in go any of us - including me. If a few of them get shouty, then where's the surprise in that.

By definition, someone who isn't British but is homeless, is stuck in a bad place which they really cannot leave - how do you get back to your homeland if you have no money at all?

What Ben said. I was thinking of posting something pretty much word for word the same on every single point.

(Hey Ben, great minds!)

Now if we could manage this telepathy thing properly we could make a bucket on the stage. Or picking horses. Or summat!

we had a big issue seller who commuted????

he used to doss down in oxford then get the bus to our town to sell the B.I. as he had no competition from other B.I. sellers in the town, unlike oxford

Well the thing is both the 2 BI sellers around here don't look vulnerable to me, nor homeless judging by the way they are turned out. I think the one who was getting £1,000 a week(not the 2 local ones)was stupid enough or cocky enough to admit it which made it worse for those who might be genuine. Genuinely longterm homeless beggers have a certain somthing about them, unlike those who see it as a nice little earner in the good places to beg. And yes Ben, not all beggers are genuine! Certainly those prepared to sit in winters rain or cold are more likely to be so.
A lot of genuine street people have mental health problems, and I am quite good at spotting the loons, it takes one to know one!
.
If I was going to give anyone begging anything I would go to shop corner shop and buy a sandwich as anyone who refused food would be a bit sus to me!

You are right, giving food is probably the best thing to do Strangely, but I am too lazy to go backwards and forwards like that.

But who are any of us to judge whether someone *looks* homeless or not? Perhaps the person is meticulous about their appearance because they have OCD, which must be a real bitch if you are homeless. Perhaps it's their way of keeping hold of their self-restraing.

I'm willing to trust the BI organisation to make good enough calls often enough about their vendors. No one gets it right every single time, so "good enough", and "often enough" are ok by me. Their problem comes when they have people who aren't actually vendors selling the magazine.

B

What is this "self-restraing" of which I type?

I meant self-esteem of course.

We certainly have homeless people here, but no organized program similar to the one you're discussing. Now I'm wondering if they do something similar in the large cities. Is it a private company that prints the papers and manages it or a government program?

It's a charity. http://www.bigissue.com/

The site explicitly says "homeless and vulnerably housed" - I guess they don't want to make it just homeless people in case vendors turn down accommodation to keep their right to sell the magazine.

I remember seeing those but must confess that I wasn't paying enough attention to grasp the implications. So it is the same edition for the entire country, which makes the logistics easier. I can see the possibility of something like that working here regionally, but our distances make things difficult.

*listening to the discussion*

Strangely, I'm very curious, but again, HOW do you know this guy was making £1000 a week? Did you read it in a newspaper? Did you read it on an online news site? Was it actual news by a reporter, or a letter or a comment by a member of the public? Did someone tell you about it? If so who, and in what context, and how did THEY know?

I have heard, over the years, lots of rumours and 'urban myths' about beggars making large sums of money by begging. Investigation of actual news sites, newspapers, and so on, has in every case I looked into proved that it was just that, an urban myth. I want to be perfectly sure that you are judging these people based on facts, and not on what you've 'heard' that 'they' did. Who are the 'they' of which you write? What is their agenda?

Ag, and sometimes the truth hurts and things you don't want to be true are, I am not going to go into exactly where it happend as near where I live but it was proved beyond dought and naturally pissed people off.
Ag, sometimes people take advantage of well meaning people and get away with it until caught and really they don't care if take advantage of others. People are sometimes well meaning and I am sure that nowdays it couldn't happen again, but it did. There are too many people who are fit and well and take advantage of say the disabilty benefits system and don't give a shite that it was meant for those genuinely ill. Me I am crazy as a fox on speed at moment and sure I would get some, I am so crazy at this very moment I am fighting to atop doing a Britney with the electric clippers next to me. maybe I wouldn't get any money as at moment I really think I would screw the forms up of which there are many.

>> So it is the same edition for the entire country, which makes the logistics easier

No. Sections of it are the same, and sections of it are different. A lot of the editorial is common, but the ads are local and so are a lot of the reviews and news items. Electronic printing makes this easy, of course.

B

I became quite friendly with a Big Issue salesman. I saw him giving a statement to a policeman, and asked him about it a day or two later and from then on we chatted once or twice a week.

He'd worked in the movies, a technician (I won't go into too many details, it would feel like betraying a confidence). He lived in a tent, and definitely wasn't on a grand a week. I suspect he may have had some kind of minor mental problem: he was offered a job on a film, but turned it down because he didn't think he could do the work properly any more. But he was intelligent, good company and I wished I could do something meaningful to help him.

I haven't seen him for more than a year. I suspect he may be dead. Homeless people tend not to live very long.