This is based on a trope that doesn’t really happen any more. Rather than begging, homeless people would sell things and pencils was a common item. The joke is that they were really representatives of a big pencil conglomerate and would be fortunate to be able to go into pencil retailing.
I remember newspaper machines used to have have boxes with the day’s paper. You’d put a few coins in, open the box, and take one paper from the stack. I imagine that was also an available resource for merchandise for re-sale.
I hear people in Argentina are hard-selling socks in the street, too, so the tradition is still alive.
I ran into a homeless dude in Chicago selling tourist magazines, I told him I didn’t need a magazine but appreciated he was at least not just asking for money and gave him some cash anyway.
Larson’s context is American cities. When I was a child I would see people selling pencils, shoelaces, and combs like this. Poverty is a much bigger problem, but I haven’t seen that kind of retail in decades. Stuff on blankets, yes. But not small consumer goods. Hans Christian Anderson wrote about the little match girl, but I have never seen a child sell matches either. I have seen children selling gum in Mexico.
Exactly my point. You said it’s an old trope that doesn’t happen anymore. It may not be pencils specifically everywhere, but it most definitely still happens in the general sense. You have the kids selling chicle in Mexico, people (especially kids) sell toothbrushes in east Africa, adults sell 10-packs of tissues all over the world, hell, I’ve seen people walking around selling bottles of water in Vegas.
This is based on a trope that doesn’t really happen any more. Rather than begging, homeless people would sell things and pencils was a common item. The joke is that they were really representatives of a big pencil conglomerate and would be fortunate to be able to go into pencil retailing.
I remember newspaper machines used to have have boxes with the day’s paper. You’d put a few coins in, open the box, and take one paper from the stack. I imagine that was also an available resource for merchandise for re-sale.
I hear people in Argentina are hard-selling socks in the street, too, so the tradition is still alive.
I ran into a homeless dude in Chicago selling tourist magazines, I told him I didn’t need a magazine but appreciated he was at least not just asking for money and gave him some cash anyway.
Streetwise has been a thing in Chicago for decades as well!
The Big Issue is the UK equivalent. Evidently both were inspired by Street News in NYC, which is the the first with that purpose.
The Danish counterpart, Hus Forbi
It happens all over the world.
Larson’s context is American cities. When I was a child I would see people selling pencils, shoelaces, and combs like this. Poverty is a much bigger problem, but I haven’t seen that kind of retail in decades. Stuff on blankets, yes. But not small consumer goods. Hans Christian Anderson wrote about the little match girl, but I have never seen a child sell matches either. I have seen children selling gum in Mexico.
Exactly my point. You said it’s an old trope that doesn’t happen anymore. It may not be pencils specifically everywhere, but it most definitely still happens in the general sense. You have the kids selling chicle in Mexico, people (especially kids) sell toothbrushes in east Africa, adults sell 10-packs of tissues all over the world, hell, I’ve seen people walking around selling bottles of water in Vegas.