If you live someplace like the United States, you’re probably not too familiar with the practice of selling door-to-door. Gone are the days of traveling salesmen who would peddle their wares directly to people’s homes. In this day and age, anything you might need is usually a quick walk, drive, or Amazon order away. However, in many parts of the world, such as Nicaragua, this is not the case.
A woman in Granada displays the personal care products she sells door to door.
People in Nicaragua who live in cities can usually easily walk to the nearest store, but in rural areas, getting access to goods can be difficult. There isn’t a Walmart on every corner and most people don’t have cars, so simply getting to a store can be challenging. It often means traveling to one of the large cities, shelling out 50 cordobas for the bus fare (the equivalent of $1 or half a day’s work), and spending most of the day in transit. This is an expensive and time consuming way to buy things.
There’s a real need for goods that are easily accessible, and so traveling salespeople fill that need. The effects of this are twofold. It offers a much-needed service to rural communities and it provides a business opportunity for many women looking to earn money in the informal economy, where 80% of Nicaraguan workers are employed.* For some, selling door-to-door may offer the chance to make a bit more than the minimum salary, while for others, it's a necessity. There just aren't enough jobs in the formal economy that allow low-income women to make a decent living.
A traveling salesperson has a lot to consider about the different aspects of running such a business. She’ll have to figure out who her potential market is and where they’re located. Often she may know someone in a particular community who can give her more information about the needs of the people in the community and whether they’re likely to buy from her before she has to make the journey there herself.
A woman who sells plantain chips door to door poses for a photo in her home in Granada, Nicaragua.
A woman places plantain chips into plastic bags in order to sell them door to door in her community in Granada, Nicaragua.
Transportation can be costly and time consuming, and both of these things have to be factored in. Most traveling salespeople will take a bus to one of the large cities one to two times per week and buy goods in bulk from wholesale suppliers. They then have to transport the goods back to their customers and spend time in the community selling these items door to door. Many salespeople simply walk between their customers’ homes.
Mary Luz from San Isidro
One of the members of our San Isidro community saving group, Mary Luz, works as a traveling salesperson. She started off selling only a few products in one community, but as time went by she acquired more clients who asked for more products and she expanded her wares as well as the communities she visits. She sells things like pants, shirts, socks, underwear, perfume and household utensils which she buys in the city of Matagalpa every 15 days. Until recently, Mary Luz was walking from her home to the communities where she sells her goods, one of which is about an hour away. However, she was able to use some of the money she saved from the community savings group to buy a motorbike so that now she can reach her customers more easily.
Hard-working traveling saleswomen play an integral role in providing much-need service to rural areas in Nicaragua. They are a perfect example of what it means to be entrepreneurial and driven. If you want to learn more about life in Nicaragua or get updates on our work with women, follow us here on our blog or on our social channels.
*Alaniz, E., Gindling, T. H., Mata, C., & Rojas, D. (2021). Heterogeneous informality in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. In WIDER Working Paper. UNU-WIDER. https://doi.org/10.35188/unu-wider/2021/988-4