On Wednesday, Aug. 26, Street Roots vendors lined up in front of the Street Roots office an hour before it opened. The first print edition of the paper since March was coming out, and they were eager to buy their papers and get selling.
Most of them had been out for the past couple of weeks selling a Street Roots special publication, “Streets in the Time of Pandemic.”
As they stood on the street, 6 feet apart, we asked them what it was like to be back, interacting with their customers again. Here’s what they had to say.
Alex Leon
“I found that people were extremely hungry for Street Roots. I’d already been selling my old papers, keeping Street Roots alive during the shutdown, and I made so many new customers who never had time to read our paper or ask who we were or what we did. It’s been really great. The public response has been just amazing.”
Norm Chamberlin
“My customers had a sigh of relief for me. I hadn’t worked for so long. During the shutdown, they’d always ask me, ‘Do you have enough food? Are you doing OK?’ I said, ‘We’ll get busy with the papers.’”
Randy Mangino
“I got to reconnect with people that I’ve been talking to for the past couple years. Even people I didn’t know were happy to see Street Roots back. We’ve got a lot of support out there. People love it.”
Mike D.
“I did really well with the magazine. They were pretty stoked that it was in color. They said they’d like us to start doing that more often.”
Jennifer Bradford
“Everyone wants the paper. When I went to the farmers market I do, I did pretty well with it.”
Joe V.
“I moved quite a few once it was explained that we’ve been off for five months. People wanted to help.”
Denise Hrouda
“It felt nice to see everybody again — my customers that usually come to me. It was nice to be back.”
Daniel Cox
“My customers are very glad to see me and see that I’m working again. I did get help from a few people that supported me. I got a loan from a friend, and then I got the stimulus. I’m looking forward to making money.”
Tom Miller
“It went pretty good. I went to a couple different places to sell the paper. Every place seems to be glad that we’re back.”
Rick Davis
“It’s great," Joe said. He said that during the shutdown, some of his customers at Trinity Episcopal have brought him bottles and cans he can recycle. "I’ve been working on a wall in the office with obituaries and pictures of the vendors that have passed in the last couple years.”
Karen Flemming
“We’re making money to pay our medical bills,” Karen says of herself and Street Roots vendor Belinda Estermeyer-Beason. “It’s hard when you don’t have insurance.”
William Weeks
“Just being able to talk to people, being social. I’m a social butterfly so that hibernation wasn’t doing me very good mentally.”