Greensboro, NC Soliciting & Door-to-Door: Solicitor Permits (2026)

Greensboro regulates traveling sales activity through City Code Sec. 13-202, "Commercial solicitors," found in Article V of Chapter 13 alongside the peddler and mobile-food-vendor permits. Subsection (a) requires a business permit for anyone who travels from place to place taking or offering to take orders for goods to be delivered later or services to be performed later, and it also reaches anyone who occupies a building or premises for the sole purpose of taking such orders, whether or not samples are shown or money changes hands up front.

Subsection (b) exempts solicitors engaged in interstate commerce from the underlying permit fee, but they must still obtain a business permit marked to show the exemption. Subsection (c) requires a $500 bond approved by the city attorney before any permit issues, guaranteeing delivery of the goods or refund of any deposit; if a single solicitor's undelivered orders exceed $500 in gross sales, the bond must grow in increments of at least $250. Anyone who solicits or sells door to door at private residences faces two additional layers under subsections (d) and (e): a criminal background check reviewed by the chief of police or a designee, which disqualifies an applicant who has two or more chapter violations or who has been convicted of assault, communicating threats, a sexual offense or abuse involving a minor, a sexually violent offense, or illegal weapons use within the prior ten years; and a hard operating window of sunrise to sunset, during which the solicitor may not enter a residence without express consent, use profane or abusive language, make threatening gestures, or refuse to leave when asked.