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| MICRO-LOCATION DECISION MAKING OF URBAN STREET VENDORS: EVIDENCE FROM INTERVIEWS WITH 200 VENDORS IN GUANGZHOU |
| HUANG Geng-zhi1, XUE De-sheng2, JIN Li-xia1 |
1. Guangzhou Institute of Geography, Guangdong Open Laboratory of Geospatial Information Technology and Application, Guangzhou 510070, China;
2. School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China |
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Abstract Drawing upon the tools of spatial analysis provided by ArcGIS software and semi-structural interviews with 200 street vendors in 20 main street-vending sites in Guangzhou, this paper analyzes the spatiotemporal characteristics of street vending and explains the rule of location decision in the street vending economy from a microcosmic perspective. The spatial distribution of the street vending economy is characterized by agglomeration at different spatial levels (i.e. city, district, street). The nearest neighbor analysis shows that street vendors concentrates in central city districts, while the kernel density estimation further shows that they distributes in prime sections of a given district. The number of street vendors regularly changes at different time. While there are relatively more street vendors in Guangzhou in non-farming seasons and winter than in other seasons, in a given day the number of street vendors in a specific place increases from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and then decreases. Primarily influenced by the market factor, the location of street vending is simultaneously influenced by the distance from the place of residence to the vending location, governmental regulation, interventions by stake-holders including shopkeepers, security guards in public places and surrounding residents, and the cooperation and competition among street vendors who are associated based on laoxiang relation.
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Received: 06 March 2015
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2016, Vol. 31 
