After six months in Melbourne, Scott has seen the light and returned to the sunny skies of Sydney. Formally a vendor selling The Big Issue at Potts Point, the “man in the chair” is working a new pitch outside IGA on Oxford Street. “It’s all just starting up [again] so I have to get it all going again. If I sit in a different position or if I don’t have a chair no one knows it’s actually me.”
Scott has been a vendor with The Big Issue for two and a half years and has sold the magazine in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney.
Growing up on the outskirts of Sydney, he started an apprenticeship at a bakery but was unable to see out the four years. “I dropped out because there was no support.”
That’s when he turned to The Big Issue. “I’d known about it for ages and I was fairly lazy – I could have signed up two or three additions beforehand. I just signed up and just started making money.”
But he is quick to note that it is not an easy job. “It depends on what mood people are in, it depends on the day. You can make some money, but there are other days when you won’t make anything at all. It doesn’t matter how many people walk past if they don’t want to buy it you don’t sell any, so you’ve gotta hope people buy it.”
“A few people from the old pitch walk down here a few times but they probably don’t realise that I’m back. If I sit in a different position or if I don’t have a chair no-one knows it’s actually me. I had ten different people in one day say, ‘I buy off the guy that sits down’.”
Scott is committed to selling The Big Issue rain or shine. “The weather doesn’t make a difference.” So if you walk past Scott don’t forget to say hello, buy a magazine and remind him that Sydney is better than Melbourne.
