"SLC26-W1 | Street Business Diaries: Street Food and Snacks."

Welcome to Uyo, a city where men and women risk their lives on the streets just to survive and feed their families. They say disease no dey kill Nigerians. What prompted this? The street foods and snacks did. Why? Because most street food and snacks are exposed to pollution by air and land where waste competes with spaces where these street foods and snacks are sold. Street foods and snacks are the fastest way to eliminate hunger as a roadside user, especially for students who are always moving around without getting settled for a minute.

Let's look into the lives of the street food and snack sellers. In my area, appetisers and snacks are mostly sold on the street during the day, while foods are sold at night. Why? During the day, workers have no time to stay in your place to eat, as they buy and go to their offices or business places to consume what was purchased, and it's mostly light meals they can conveniently eat in public.

In this post, I'll be very strategic, exploring the small business strategies of street foods and snacks in my city. Let's take the following information of a street snack seller I met. He joined steemit after the interview and promised to supply Nigerians with 50 stew pies during their meetup. His username is @ub-pies

I may not be specific with the details given above. I just want to use him as a case study. In every business, we do have case studies to reflect on when balancing the location, business size and challenges of businessmen.

In my country, we have a lot of street food and snacks which are tailored to the needs of businessmen in the day and at night. During the day, it's snacks-exclusive, as foods are sold in shops and restaurants, not on the street. Why? They feel it's going to be a waste of time selling foods eaten on a plate with spoons on the streets where people are moving about hastily or to their workplace.

It all depends on the kind of food and snacks sold. So everything done on the street is timing if you want to be profitable. In Uyo, we have different angles where Bean cake are sold on the street. You can't possibly sell bean cake in a shop in the afternoon and expect people to patronise you. This food is to be sold on the street in the morning, as early as 6:30 am, to favour workers who leave their houses early without getting to eat before leaving. You serve as their source of food.

Bean cake with pap is one street food sold in my street. If you want to make it in your business, you sell this in the morning hours and leave when it's 11pm, as you won't see people to patronise you again. You see? Timing and type of food sold

This is one street food sold in the morning. Other foods sold in corners, not directly on the street where people pass, include

• Rice and beans

• Yam and plantain [boiled]

• Spaghetti and stew

• Jollof rice etc.....

These foods are mostly for people doing hard labour work, as they are mostly seen in places like this to fill their stomachs before work.

At night, we have street foods for this time. You can't sell Pap on the street at night. You'll lose patronage. Some street foods sold at night in my city include

• Roasted chicken with potatoes, yam and sauce

• Fried rice with beef and fried plantain

• Soup ranging from Afang, Melon, White and fisherman

• Jollof rice, beans

These are foods sold at night that attract customers to your place. At night, shops aren't really visible. People tend to bring out their coolers to open areas by the roadside to sell food to workers returning from work. Your location matters too.

For street snacks, your location matters more than your timing. You can sell snacks in the morning, afternoon and evening and still get your sales made. Snacks like egg rolls, drinks, biscuits, pancakes etc are what people purchase during the day, as they're easy to eat and drink, comfortable in public and portable. You don't need to sit down to take these snakes. Selling snacks at night may not be a good idea, as most people go for food.

Case study: The businessman I mentioned earlier owns a small business close to a university where students eat on an hourly basis. His location is quite perfect, as it's by the entrance of the university. Selling foods would be a bad idea, as he won't have patronage. Students need snacks to carry about, snacks that are portable and can be eaten in public places comfortably.

	Egg rolls	Fish pies
Doughnuts	Stew pies

Selling snacks like fish pie, chicken pies, stew pies and egg rolls that fill the stomach is a strategic way to drive students to his stand without stress. Every 5-10 minutes, he gets a student who wants to buy his snacks.

In preparing a business, whether big or small, on the street, you need to be strategic and consider the following questions:

• Is my location a good one? Do people pass here often?

• Am I selling what people need at the moment?

• What time do I sell my food or snack? Do people consider eating such in the time sold?

Still working on the case study mentioned earlier, I've eaten these foods myself. When I was an undergraduate, these street foods saved me a whole lot of time because I'd leave the house as early as 6 am to attend 7 am classes, as my distance to school was far. On the road, I'll meet this Akara seller, selling hot Akara and bread. I'll purchase it and rush to school. In school, I also purchase some street snacks during the day, as eating food can only be possible when you're home.

Still working on the case study mentioned earlier, I've eaten these foods myself. When I was an undergraduate, these street foods saved me a whole lot of time because I'd leave the house as early as 6 am to attend 7 am classes, as my distance to school was far. On the road, I'll meet this Akara seller, selling hot Akara and bread. I'll purchase it and rush to school. In school, I also purchase some street snacks during the day, as eating food can only be possible when I'm home. I can remember when I was living in the hostel.

Eating street food was done on a daily basis before going to school. I love eating Jollof rice, as beans make me uncomfortable during the day. There's this particular woman who sells Jollof rice in the morning. People crowd her stand to eat, most times, blocking the road to show how sweet her food is. At night, the same thing. I eat street food when I return from school to the hostel.

There's this woman who sells at night.... Dammmnnnnnn. It's her Ekpang for me. You'll definitely be tempted to spend more than you planned because her Ekpang is one of the best I've tasted. The prices are shown below. During the day, I'll purchase snacks with a drink to fill my stomach and make me comfortable during lectures.

	Morning taste
	Afternoon taste
	Evening taste

Case study: I made a video of how I ate Ubong's snacks during the day. His puff puff was damn. You can see me nod my head in the video. He has prices for all his snacks and it's student-friendly.