In my area, the local jurisdictions do not allow roadside selling of anything! The police or code enforcement soon shows up to shoo you away or threaten you with fines and arrest! BTW, I could stand there and beg for money , No problems, usually, for all the beggars. Some few roadside vendors, evidently bribe or are related to the authorities and set up without being harassed at certain locations. They demand most people, to have street vendors license/ business license, no signage without a sign permit, pay personality taxes assessed on all your assets used to produce, handle and sell your product and including all office/record keeping equipment in that inventory of assets. Not to be parked or standing within the public right of way (often 10 to 25 feet back from the highways edge and excepted for emergency only) is also a State law. Written permission or proof of ownership/rental is required to park/sale near the roadside for vendors, even off of the Public right of way. A few businesses (Tractor Supply allows some parking lot sales) allow farmers to sale, but it is usually crowded with vendors, many reselling commercial/wholesale(non local) bought produce and fewer buyers and you often have no room to set up, if you don't get there hours before the store opens. The large "farmers Markets" have expensive fees, most, often sale commercial "imported" crops, more than any local produce and are usually filled up with "regulars" who get first shot at space, not already leased by them. I am a guerilla roadside "vendor" occasionally these days! I park in a safe place near a busy neighborhood and set up for about 30 minutes to an hour at a time and choose a different location most consecutive days to avoid the chamber of commerce Gestapo! I live on a dead in road, off the beaten path and have sometimes not even been able to give away excess crop from my Private homesteads road frontage, with large signs offering the organic fed produce free! I grew about 150 crimson sweet watermelons in excess of what my family ate the last few years and sold about half on the roadside, moving often due to the police in two separate counties/towns, last year, near my home. I can not afford to buy all the license, pay personality taxes on my equipment and assets, stall rental(if available) and record keeping for selling a few hundred dollars worth of produce each year! If they treat me like a business, than I should be able to be classified as a farm producer and be eligible for tax right offs and etc. But No! The IRS and the State of Tennessee require you to show a profit and that farming activities to be a sizable portion of your income to qualify as a business, along with extensive record keeping! The few hundred dollars help defer some of my expenses but a profit on all my gardening /farming sizable enough to qualify for IRS or in State farming occupation is not possible for me now! Most of my garden is for family consumption. My income is mostly from social security and close to the official poverty line, but they are concerned about me hurting the economy or local merchants with my huge operation(not) or cheating the government out of my huge(not)tax bill ! HA HA! Walmart and Kroger, appear to be another big reason, why the authorities go after me and others, that might sale a small amount of their occasional local garden produce. If I could get them to buy my usually, superior produce, I would sale it cheap to them. Alas, what do you do, when you have no money, lots of fresh and quality garden produce and the authorities will not allow you to sale it, without satisfying many financial requirements, that are unreasonable for poor, nearly subsistence farmers/gardeners? I give away a lot! Glad to help people, but most of the recipients have more resources than I do and I am relying more and more on a couple of friends who purchase or give me help with supplies occasionally, as my income does not cover all my farm gardens expenses anymore! I have, though harassed and threatened, managed to take in a few hundred dollars from sales, the last two years, despite the uniformed lackeys working for the tyrants at city hall and the chamber of commerce. It helped purchase some of the years seeds and supplies. It is a sad state of affairs for low income rural seniors to be treated worse than beggars, for merely trying occasionally, to sale a portion of their gardens produce in a safe and respectful manner(instead of panhandling) , along a deserted and buildingless stretch of roadside, with wide and good shoulders to pull off on to and keeping well off the road. Just saying, it is not right or moral, to deny small and poor gardeners the ability to sale their excess crops for cash, without meeting the description of a Farm business, with profits, making up a sizable portion of their income. Making $25,000 per year, I would have to show a $5,000 profit on at least every third year to qualify as a farm business in Tennessee, 20% or more of total income from the farming! That is selling a lot of tomatoes or watermelons! Then I would have to have a new tractor, employees, a large truck, a new building and a lot more! I can't do that anymore! Or, I could just be a criminal or beggar and ignore the law or be exempted from being banned from the roadside due to protection for beggars status.
