The Big Issue

Riverwalk - I am surprised to hear of pitches being taken over by gangs as I was under the impression that the BI central organisation was very careful about who distributes the mags. Where is this happening?

tanith I am with you- I thought that it cost £1 and even then was overpriced as it was so badly written. I used to give £1 and tell the girl to resell my paper. It shows how long ago since I have bothered.

I gave up on the Big Issue years ago - much of the distribution has been taken over by Romanian gangs.

Re your OP lucky I think this would stop people buying from her and from other more honest sellers. There is a Big Issue website where you can report poor behaviour by sellers online.

I only know this as my daughter was recently hassled then verbally abused by a seller in Leamington recently. She reported him and he's not been seen since. This is not harsh as people like these two leave a bad feeling about Big Issue sellers.

When it was sold by the homeless I used always to buy it. Since I've discovered this is not neccessarily the case I've stopped.

oops good job I haven't bought one for a while I obviously was living in the past...

Yes £2.50 is the cover price.

According to Google the vendors buy the copies for £1.25 each and the cover price is £2.50, so they make £1.25 on every copy they sell.

They're supposed to give change and not charge any more than £2.50.

I used to give the seller £1 and tell them to keep it for themselves - I got the paper once and it wasn't very interesting. But maybe it's better for their pride to take the paper, then they're selling rather than begging.
There's a similar thing here (France) - the sellers look so down and out, I usually give them something.

I'm usually asked for £3.50 so what should be the price?

I have bought it and always thought is was £1 to buy, so does it have a price as such? I've always just given a £1 never gave it a thought but I wouldn't feel bad you give what you can.