Canal Street and Beyond: Secret World App Launches Hustle Map as New York Expands Vendor Licenses
The Secret World app’s Hustle Map showing active Popups across Lower Manhattan, Chinatown and Canal Street — temporary independent sellers listed for as long as they’re actually there.
Canal Street has long been shorthand for a kind of New York commerce that happens at street level rather than behind a storefront.
Canal Street draws steady foot traffic to a stretch of New York where much of the commerce happens on the sidewalk rather than behind a storefront.
Discovery still ends the same way — a person finds a seller, and a transaction happens in the neighborhood.
Two economies run on the same block. Only one of them has traditionally appeared on a map.
New York is expanding vendor licenses. Secret World’s Hustle Map aims to make temporary and mobile independent sellers easier to find.
The launch comes during a significant shift in the city’s approach to street vending. Beginning July 1, 2026, New York City is making 2,200 new mobile food vending supervisory licenses available each year for five years, part of an expansion that will ultimately increase the number of available mobile food vending permits by 11,000. Separately, Local Law 54 of 2026 will make an additional 10,500 General Vendor licenses available beginning January 15, 2027. (New York City Government (https://www.nyc.gov/site/doh/business/food-operators/mobile-and-temporary-food-vendors.page?utm_source=chatgpt.com))
For Secret World, the changing regulatory environment raises a separate question: once more independent sellers are able to operate legally, how will people know where to find them?
Hustle Map is designed around that problem.
Unlike a traditional business directory built primarily around permanent addresses, Hustle Map allows temporary sellers to appear on a location-based map while they are operating. A seller can create a Popup listing tied to a particular location and period of availability, allowing nearby users to see what is happening around them at that moment.
The feature is particularly relevant to neighborhoods such as Canal Street, where permanent storefronts, mobile sellers, temporary tables and other forms of street commerce can exist within the same few blocks.
Traditional digital maps are well suited to businesses that stay in one location. Temporary commerce operates differently. A seller may appear for several hours, move to another block, participate in a market for one afternoon or operate only on certain days.
Secret World developed Hustle Map around that distinction.
“The city is creating more pathways for people to legally operate, but being allowed to sell and being discoverable are two different things,” said Kai Zhang, founder of Secret World. “Hustle Map is about giving temporary commerce a place on the map while it is actually happening.”
The feature is not limited to food vendors. Secret World envisions the map being used by eligible independent sellers offering clothing, handmade goods, baked items, art, vintage merchandise and other locally sold products, subject to applicable laws and licensing requirements.
Street vending has long been part of New York’s commercial landscape. City officials are now expanding the formal licensing structure around it. More than 5,800 food vendors already hold permits to operate in New York City, according to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. (New York City Government (https://www.nyc.gov/site/doh/about/press/pr2026/mobile-food-vending-waiting-list-for-veterans-people-with-disabilities.page?utm_source=chatgpt.com))
The broader licensing expansion could gradually bring thousands more vendors into the formal economy.
Hustle Map represents Secret World’s attempt to build a discovery layer around that activity — one designed for commerce that may not have a permanent storefront, permanent address or permanent schedule.
Canal Street provides an early example of the idea: established businesses operating behind fixed storefronts alongside a constantly changing layer of independent street commerce.
Both exist on the same block.
Hustle Map is designed to make both easier to see.
Angela Cohen
Manhattan Street Journal
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