Brazilian beaches have an economy of their own. separate from the traditional economy section devoted to tourism. This is a phenomena I haven’t seen else where (though I hear it also lives in southeast Asia). Venders weave between tables provided by the beach front restaurant. Tables, chairs, and safe boxes are provided for free/rent depending. These umbrellas create a shaded environment which is necessary in the blinding tropical sun for sustaining any life forms.
The vendors sell a remarkable array of items: shirts, shorts, swim suits, hammocks, handcrafts, sun glasses, jewelry, massages, DVD's, sunscreen, cigarettes, gum, kangas (to lay on sand) and many kinds of food. If you sit in a sufficiently low density of people vendors don't bother trekking over and abandoning the majority of the heard of beach goers. In these sparsely populated outskirts you can watch the market flow but improper calculation of distance from the mobile merchants results in one facing regular inquisitions and the desire to reach for a large-fly repellant.
I wonder about the interaction of the vendors and the restaurant. Is it a relation of symbiosis, mutually benefiting, commensalism? The markets of the vendors and the restaurants do not entirely overlap but they do both compete for money, an extremely limiting resource. I wonder if there is friction.
I wish I could buy a bikini on an American beach and have it fit but then again, not being accosted has its benefits too.
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