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

I buy Big Issue. I think it's important. I buy it every week. I sometimes buy the same issue of Big Issue more than once a week. I rarely read it. But I always buy it. Because I think it's important.

Now, the problem:
On my lunchtime 'patch' there are half a dozen Big Issue 'vendors'. They sometimes move around and appear outside a different shop or at the end of a different arcade. So I tend to make my purchase from the first guy/girl I come across. That's just me being lazy.

So, the question:
Should I try to ensure that each week a different vendor gets my £2.40 (or £3 if they "keep the change"), or should I choose one, and give my relatively-easily-earned cash to the same guy/girl each week?

Can't decide.

I always buy mine from the first person I see. I know that some people buy more than one if they come across another vendor, but I think that's just a waste of a magazine - especially if they aren't read at all. I always read as much of mine as I'm interested in, there's no point buying it otherwise. If you feel you want to make donations, then there are other ways to do it, without possibly losing a new reader for the mag.

Hey Mina, thanks for that.

>>without possibly losing a new reader for the mag<<
The penny only just dropped - these guys only have a handful of Big Issues, so if I buy more than one I am actually doing someone else out of a copy. Maybe I'll just pay more for the first copy.

>>I always read as much of mine as I'm interested in<<
When I say I rarely read it, that's not quite true. What I mean is I don't read it cover-to-cover, and certainly I think buying it is the most important thing (hence my mis-guided purchasing of double copies, which I promise I'll stop now I've seen it in a different light ).

>>to make donations, then there are other ways<<
Agreed, buying Big Issue is so much more _real_ though.

Still undecided about having a 'regular' or not though. I've previously worked in places where there's been the same guy, week-in week-out, and you kind of feel like you're actually helping someone, rather than spreading yourself so thin that maybe no-one is benefitting.

I know what you mean about not reading them from cover to cover, I read the articles at the front, then turn to the back for the letters and the missing people!

I've never been able to get a regular - I've tried, but where I used to work in London, most of the time there was no one on the pitches, and when they were often weren't there long. In my home town they are a bit more regular, but they are only around on Saturdays, and I don't always go to the high street then.

So if you can find one, then stick to him/her like glue!