About Vendors

Our outreach team work across the country to give vendors on-the-spot training and encouragement, and to ensure that all the Big Issue pitches are operating as they should

People can become homeless or vulnerably housed many different reasons. Our vendors lives have been affected by many factors from family break-up, time in the armed forces, to the loss of a business.

Selling The Big Issue is a way to gain not just money but a sense of stability, routine and confidence.

Read some of our vendor's stories here. Buy The Big Issue in Scotland, out every Thursday, to read more on issues around homelessness in Scotland.

To begin selling the Big Issue, vendors are taken through selling techniques and then sign a code of conduct. They then receive five free magazines to get them started.

Big Issue vendors work in most Scottish towns and cities. Homelessness, by its very nature, is experienced throughout Scotland, in major urban centres right through to rural communities and The Big Issue endeavours to be as accessible as possible to anyone who finds themselves homeless or vulnerably housed.

As well as the main Big Issue offices situated in Edinburgh and Glasgow, The Big Issue is sold in partnership from well-established agencies across the country. Vendors at both the Big Issue offices and our partnership agencies can be referred to existing support – including housing, legal and health advice – when they pick up their magazines.

In addition, our outreach team work across the country to give vendors on-the-spot training and encouragement, and to ensure that all the Big Issue pitches are operating as they should. We also visit hostels and other homeless agencies to raise awareness of the benefits that selling The Big Issue can provide.

Where is my local vendor?

Click here for a list of the Scottish towns and cities where Big Issue vendors are currently working

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