Who better to tell us how Big Issue has changed over the last 35 years than Kelvin Gregory? The veteran vendor has been selling the magazine since its inception back in 1991.
Ahead of Big Issue’s 35th birthday, we headed down to his pitch at Somerset House in Central London to surprise him with some old footage of him being interviewed in the 2000s. The 26-year-old news clip shows a ponytailed Gregory delivering an induction meeting to new vendors.
Back then, Gregory, now 64, worked for Big Issue supporting other vendors as well as selling the magazine. He is stunned to see his younger self in action. “Is that me there?” he asks when he’s presented with the tablet. “No way, that’s surreal.”
The footage follows the full process as the magazines make their way to vendors in the office. The model remains the same even to this day: vendors buy the magazine for 50% of the cover price and keep the difference when they sell it. “It’s been a vocation, I enjoy it,” Gregory says. “And I’m dispelling the myth as well, right? I mean that not everybody has drink or drug problems, it’s getting through hard times.”
The video follows Gregory’s day at Big Issue’s London HQ. After the 7am vendor meeting, he’s filmed putting in the work to unload magazines from a lorry, part of a human chain passing bundles into the office. That brings back memories. “The office was so basic, you know what I mean? Just like an overgrown portacabin. But the format’s all the same with all the magazines stacked up in the back.
“The magazines were just banded and the ink was bloody wet. The ink used to come off on your hands. You felt like you were in camouflage all the time!”
