Stockbrokers turned sandwich vendors: the economic crisis and small-scale food retailing in Southeast Asia

This paper examines narratives of the transformations in the small-scale food-retailing sector in urban Southeast Asia. The recent Asian financial crisis sharpens the need to look at the transformation in urban self-employment more generally and food vending in particular as this livelihood has become a source of income for many of the formerly employed. Journalistic accounts, scholarly work, government reports and other secondary sources supplemented by first hand research indicate that there is a growth in small and medium enterprises selling cooked food as a coping mechanism for households in the face of a sharp decline in employment income. Middle- and upper-class consumers can no longer afford to eat in expensive restaurants like they did a few years ago thereby increasing the pool of consumers for inexpensive prepared food in Southeast Asian cities.