Hawkers and streetsellers

Before refrigeration, consumers purchased perishable goods directly from producers in the marketplace or from hawkers and streetsellers. Vendors sold fruit and vegetables or their own produce (eggs, bread, honey, fish) from street stalls or door-to-door. Rural and suburban consumers were also serviced by hawkers touting their myriad perishable and household wares from backpacks, horse-drawn caravans and trucks.

Licensed fruit barrows, magazine stands and flower stalls were a common sight on Sydney streets until the increase in automobile traffic in the city in the 1920s caused their numbers to subside. In the 1990s the City of Sydney reintroduced these stands to encourage diversity in the urban streetscape.