It’s no secret that the Golden Triangle area at Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur, has long been the target for foreigners to conduct illegal businesses.
In recent times, illegal street vendors, who are also known as ‘Rambo vendors’, have been selling a variety of items from flowers to balloons, children’s toys and lighted decorations to locals and tourists alike around the area.
According to a report by Harian Metro, these ‘Rambo vendors’ consist of foreigners from Bangladesh, the Philippines, Myanmar and Indonesia. Additionally, they have been found to make a profit of hundreds of Ringgits every night without having to rent premises and pay for business licenses.
One flower vendor from Bangladesh shared that they were able to sell between 100 to 200 flowers on weekends, from 5pm onwards, at the Pavilion Shopping Centre area to Conlay Street.
“One flower is sold for RM15. Indeed there are many people here, especially foreign tourists, who don’t know that we are (also) foreigners. We will walk in areas where people are concentrated, there are rarely operations here and if there is an operation, we will run home since we live in the nearby area,” he said.
If he sells 1 flower for RM15 and can sell up to 200 in a weekend, that’s a whopping RM3,000!
A balloon vendor from the Philippines also admitted that she makes high profits from selling balloons with lights.
“This area has many visitors and is rarely supervised by the authorities, unlike Dataran Merdeka, which is often raided. We are safer here and it is easier to make a profit. I’ve been peddling in this area for 3 months and I’ve never been stopped,” she said.
These street vendors are often seen as a challenge to the authorities as they do not have licenses and often cause disruptions and cleanliness issues at the crowded street. They also tend to affect the businesses of licensed vendors in the area.
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