Maria, Tesco, St Mellons, Cardiff 

Photo: Tom Watts

I’ve sold Big Issue for two years now. I started because I didn’t have a stable job and I needed some extra help. I’m actually really pleased with how things are going at the moment on my pitch. It’s pretty good for me here.

The people are really nice to me and they are understanding and they help me where they can. They buy the magazines every day from me so that’s quite helpful and they have a little talk with me. Having a chat with them really makes your day when you’re a bit down. 

Selling the magazine in the winter can be a bit harder when it is colder, but I still go to my pitch because I still need the support. I do enjoy selling the magazine. Big Issue has helped me change my life in a way that has helped me with extra support. 

Your support changes lives. Find out how you can help us help more people by signing up for a subscription

I’ve had vouchers for electricity and gas from Big Issue and that has helped in hard times when you don’t make enough money. I also have a card reader from Big Issue, which is really helpful because some people don’t use cash at all. 

Having a happy face and saying hello is the most important thing for a Big Issue vendor to do to get new customers. It really attracts people. I’d like to say thank you to my regular customers who support me. 

Sometimes I need extra help from my family to keep up with rent and bills because sometimes it’s a bit hard. But I guess you could say that I do keep up generally. 

Without Big Issue I would probably be struggling. I don’t really have much of an education so that would mean I would be struggling if I wasn’t selling the magazine. That’s why I took this job because some people just need studies and more education that I don’t have so that’s why I was happy to do Big Issue.  

I would actually recommend selling Big Issue to other people because it’s quite a nice thing to do. You have control of your own times on your pitch, your own little place. There’s a bit of a routine to it. 

But sometimes it depends, if you can’t stay for that long then you can come home earlier. Nobody’s telling you that you have to come in today. It’s up to you. 

I’ve been in Cardiff for 10 years and I like it here – it’s a really nice city. But I’m not really much of a person to go out in the city because I have two kids aged nine and 14.

My dream for them is that I hope that they have a better life than me. What I like about Big Issue is that it is really flexible. It just gives you some extra help when you have kids. 

I enjoy spending time with my family and my kids. When I am not selling the magazine, family time is what I like to do.  

Interview: Liam Geraghty

Tesco St. Mellons Superstore, Tesco Stores Ltd, Crickhowell Road, Saint Mellons, Cardiff, UK