In support of the informal economy?

Although I would lean towards describing Chile as a developed country (a strong state, that in addition to having full civilian control over the military, can provide security, education, health care, stable infrastructure, etc. to a high degree), the country certainly does have a bustling informal economy. The upper classes rely mostly (or exclusively) on stores and supermarkets for their purchases, but given that they're only 10% off the population, there is a healthy demand for more informal venues - street vendors and markets.

Even in Providencia, which is commercial but surrounded by upper class residences, street vendors lay out pirated movies, $2 shirts, low quality makeup (possibly cancerous?), and now - Chinese-made gloves and scarves. They are constantly looking out for the police, and swoop up their goods, vanishing, if the army-green "pacos" approach. But there must be a certain degree of tolerance on the part of the police - I see the same vendors again and again in the same place.

Walking down into the metro, there's often an older woman (with an infant, for added effect) offering bandaids with a mournful, pleading voice. This is a frequent phenomena - I suspect there is a bandaid warehouse somewhere in the city, selling these generic, mediocre bandaids wholesale to (whether purposefully or not) raise these people a small step above begging. After noting the price of bandaids in farmacies, I'm beggining to spend some sort of collusion between these vendors and the farmacies - a box of bandaids can cost you $4 easily. So I buy generic.

Lastly, like in other Latin American countries I've visited, there's an easy relationship between bus drivers and street vendors. In the summer, a tattered vendor will hop onto the bus with a nod to the driver, and parrot the types of icecream he carries in a worn cooler, or even a cardboard box. His call becomes unintelligible to a newcomer "Kelao, Keloa:" is (I Think) "Quiere helado, quiere helado." He hops off, rarely successful, without paying his stay on the bus. Now vendors market chocolates and other bar candies, but I still haven't seen many sold.