Street vending is one of the informal economic activities considered significant to Thai people in the economic and day-to-day social life. It is believed that the street vendors form a group of poor and uneducated people. With the increased number of street vendors occupying space on public sidewalks, especially in central business districts, it becomes unclear whether street vending solves unemployment for access labourers. This research attempts to study and analyze types of street vendors in Bangkok under the informal economy framework. The debate on the heterogeneous informal economy has categorized into four schools; dualism, structuralism, legalism and voluntarism. The examination also embodies the market concept with Porters Five Forces of Competitive Position model analysis and the interviews with the street vendors in three case study areas: Inner zone (Pathumwan district – the sidewalk on the opposite side of Siam Paragon mall), Middle zone (Ramkhamhaeng district – the sidewalk on the opposite side of Ramkhamhaeng University) and Outer zone (Minburi district – the sidewalk on Sriburanukit Road). The result indicates that most street vendors in Siam square voluntarily choose to live in vending on a sidewalk and tend to take it as a long-term occupation even though they can be informal wage employment. Moreover, average income and a positive attitude towards self-employment are the important factors that drive them to operate street vending businesses. Meanwhile, street vending is often a family enterprise in the Ramkhamhaeng area, and most vendors do not wish to transform their businesses into formal sectors. The survey conducted in Sriburankit Road reveals that almost all street vendors migrated from other provinces and were previously paid as unskilled workers in formal sectors. They moved to informal trades because of the uncertainty of employment in the mainstream sectors and the inconsistent income with knowledge support of friends and relatives from the same hometown. In particular, the result reveals a common pattern that street vending is the first occupation of some group of vendors and will continue to engage in this activity. Thus, the government needs to design an optimal policy that integrates informal workers into the formal economy and monitors the enforcement of regulations on the modern informal economy.

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