How often do you buy a Big Issue?

[Chilliandrice24]

I read that Big Issue sellers buy the magazines for £2 and sell them for £4. It made me think that they probably make very little per day as I never see anyone stopping to buy one. I occasionally buy one but not often. I wouldn’t think they make the minimum wage per hour at that rate.

We have one Big Issue seller in my town who is popular as people stop and chat to her and she has been in her spot for years. The other three I never see people buying. I feel bad to pass them now I realise they make so little.

Do you ever buy one, do you pay the exact price and do you see other people buying them?

What difference does it make if they are white or not?

I have never bought one, years and years ago we had one lady in our nearest town, she seemed lovely she would shout 'big issue please' but I haven't seen her since at least 2020.

I read a post on here once that said that you shouldn't actually take the magazine, you pay them the price for the magazine and walk off, because sometimes they only have 1 copy and obviously if the first person to give them money wants the magazine they have nothing to sell or show people. (If that makes any sense)

No.

It's been taken over by Roma gangs. The sellers definitely aren't homeless folk needing a temporary leg up. They just use it to have a listed legitimate (permanent) occupation.

Every time I see our local seller. However I haven't seen him for months. I'd always give him a fiver and tell him to keep the change. At Christmas I buy the calendar and give him a tenner.

When I worked in a town, I used to give the Big Issue seller £5 each week for a copy. I never really read it.

I've not seen a Big Issue seller in the town since Covid, now I come to think of it.

Never. I have literally never come across anyone selling it which is weird as we have quite a large homeless population where I live. The homeless people in my town tend to congregate in a certain area and are drunk and aggressive most of the time. Its really sad but also a bit scary walking round that area at night.

No because I gave the money to the seller and he said you don't really want one do you, your giving to charity, didn't take it never purchased again

I buy it 4 or 5 times a year but only from one seller who I have chatted to and whose story I know. There are other sellers who have at times encroached on his patch (not allowed) and I tell him when this happens. I think it’s like anything else - some bad apples spoil it for everyone else.

I do enjoy reading it as it gives me another perspective on issues.

Never. I read on here you had to be registered to sell them, but none of my local sellers are registered.

One seller a friend in the police told me that she got off a train e eryday smartly dressed then changed into other clothes to sell.

I don't think it's regulated enough. I can't risk paying into a gang. I don't carry cash. I'm no more willing to get my card read off a stranger in the street than a cold caller on my phone or doorstep.

No - our sellers locally are all from the same group. Dropped off and picked up by the same people. So it's either a scam or they're trafficked and either way, the money won't be going to a good cause.

I don't buy it now because £4 is more than I want to give on the street for something I never read, and the price is clearly intended for you to give them £5 and be too embarrassed to wait for change, which they will in any case pretend not to have.

I have never bought it- the magazine is not something that remotely interests me. I give to charities of my choice by direct debit instead.

Big Issue seller outside our local shop has been there for years, lovely young woman with two small children, lives with her aunt who minds the children. We're a small village type community and most people stop, chat, and buy magazine, and give her gifts at Christmas for her and the children. She gets a bus each evening home, looking weary and tired.

Not after I recognised a local seller getting into and driving away a two year old BMW. It’s a scam nowadays.

I never do.

I never buy any magazines anymore, full stop, simply because I have so little money left these days after paying all the bills and I am saving every penny.

I would buy it if I had more disposable income.

Yes, they're all Roma women here too... I never buy it, have direct debits to my chosen charities instead.

This sort of example surely shows that it must be pretty profitable to sell the BI or why else would somebody with this profile be doing it? If she has children then she’ll be entitled to and claiming various benefits; if she’s housed and has childcare then she has the ability to access traditional employment. Part of the whole point of the Big Issue originally was that rough sleeping - usually - men with no fixed address or support couldn’t access benefits and employment and were marginalised, and this was a way for them to earn money legitimately and start their life on track again.

I never buy them. I do give homeless people a £1 when they are at traffic lights begging. Usually the same 2 who definitely are homeless. Their faces are red from the cold in winter and they wear 2 hoodies.

Like many, I used to buy it but I don't now because of the Roma gangs. One pressured my elderly, confused neighbour into giving her a wad of cash. She spun some sob story about needing cash for a roof over her kids' heads. My neighbour offered her £20 and she said "no Madame, not enough" etc and herded her to the cashpoint. I was going to the shop just as my neighbour was coming back and she told me as she was a bit stunned. I went straight to the BI seller and explained that she should not be doing this, that I would report her to the BI and get her removed. I didn't raise my voice but a small crowd gathered! She wouldn't give me her seller number. I did report her and get her removed and she was back within a month.

I think maybe once about 25 years ago, not really something I would read so never bought since. Agree that the only ones I see are Roma.

Well, quite. What this lady is doing, for years, obviously works for her. If she had a regular job she wouldn't have any cash in hand money and her benefits would take all her earnings into account because they'd be clearly visible via HMRC.

I don't buy it now as it's all run by Roma gangs. They must make an absolute pittance, but apparently the motivation is they register as self employed and it helps them get benefits.
Nothing illegal, but it's not helping the homeless like it used to. It used to be quite a good magazine about 20 years ago.

Does it matter about skin colour?

Oh, well it was from different sellers, and they usually don't like you just to give them the money, you aren't supposed to do that as it's not supposed to be charity.

I used to buy it when it was run for homeless people - I used write for it too, sometimes. It was doing good for a marginalised group, and it was carefully monitored. It also had some great writers contributing (not me!) so I always read it.

Then it started being scammed - someone would buy one magazine from a registered vendor then “sell” it on all day, asking people not to take the magazine “as it’s my last one and I need to raise enough for a hostel place.” The BI was to replace the need to beg, not to be a new scheme to exploit.

After the original team moved on it became a racket to claim self employment for benefit purposes. I’m not against people receiving benefits, I am against them gaming what was a homeless outreach programme to do so.