Loud Thoughts

Foods represent an interesting economic phenomenum in China. The essentially same product may have a range of prices that can be 100 fold: the high end is 100 times more than the low end. It bewilders me that vendors in the entire price range seem to do just fine.

Often the high end market offers services that are valuable to its clientile. The simpliest one is English fluency. Others include home delivery, cleansiness of the store, pre-washing or convenient packaging, etc. Note that I am only comparing those items that are essentially the same in terms of freshness, taste, sizes, and other common food qualities.

We shop from all of them: Jenny Lou, a market for foreigners; CarreFore, western style supermarket; Ito Yokado, Japanese department store with supermarket in the basement; local “free market” that is very similar to the farmer’s market in the US; and the convenient store close to where I live.One interesting market we go to is SanYuanLi Market (三源里市场, about half a kilometer west of Hilton, across East 3rd ring). I guess it started out as a free market and evoled into permanent booths with shelter, electricity, and water. Essentially, it is an about 200 meters long cooridor with booths lined up on both side. The opening section are fruit vendors, followed by flour/rice products stores, meat counters, seafoods, and vegetable stands. There are also booths for dry ingredients and household items, cleaning products, etc.

There is no super-market style packaging here. All items are raw and right in front of you. The carcasses at the meat counters can be intimidating. The fishes are sometime live and cleaned on the spot. Vegetables have dirt on them too, particularly carrots or other in root category.

This market is really best for its fruits, in variety, quality, and prices too. They are cheaper than the supermarkets designed for the affluent class and more expensive than the street stands. Local rarely buy fruits here, thinking the mark-ups are not worth it. But they offer one-stop shopping for all fruits. The vendors pre-select the stock and genuinely know their stuff; that is ripe for consumption, this take few more days, and those are great for gifts. They also have this uncanny face memory to recognize you and your preference: green banana, ripe pears, no strawberry, for example.

Vendors here are not camera-shy at all. Foreigners bring out their expensive SLRs and camcorders. TV and movie producers use them as backdrops. They will flash you a nice smile and offer you a fruit.

北京菜市

同步在 Loud Thoughts 上发布。

在中国，食品业有个奇怪的经济现象。同样的东西，价格可能天壤之别。而无论卖什么价格，每家店都有生意做。通常贵的店服务自然好一些。最常见的是带有英文服务。其他则包括送货服务、店面整洁、东西干净、包装漂亮等等。除此之外，货品的新鲜程度、品味、菜量及其他食品标准是一样的。

我们则各种店都会去光顾：专做外国人生意的 Jenny Lou、西式超市家乐福、带有地下超市的日本百货华堂商场，以及我家附近的自由市场和旁边的便利店。

三源里市场在希尔顿西一里左右，三环内。大概也是从自由市场开始的，现在经过翻修，水电都接好，一条200米的通道，左右均是店面。把头是卖水果的，接着是面食、肉类、水产、蔬菜。其中夹些卖干货和家用品的店。东西都是没包装的。全羊挂着颇为吓人，生猛鱼虾，当场宰杀。菜上常带些泥，尤其是根类。

水果是亮点，种类繁多，质量、价钱都不错。比超市便宜是当然的，不过主要是卖给小资高薪，比街头摊子当然贵多了。本地人不常见，大概是觉得不值吧。我倒觉得跑一趟东西可以买齐，老板选的货好，做生意也专业。告诉你这个甜，那个要等几天吃，那种送礼好。 他们记性好，见面就知道你的习惯：香蕉要生点，梨要熟，不爱草莓，诸如此类。

店家照相都大大方方的。老外拿单反相机或摄像机都没问题。电视电影也常来拍外景。他们都纵你一乐，再送你个水果尝尝。

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