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æºé‡Œå¸‚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èœå¸‚
åŒæ¥åœ¨ Loud Thoughts 上å‘布。
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我们则å„ç§åº—都会去光顾:专åšå¤–国人生æ„çš„ Jenny Louã€è¥¿å¼è¶…市家ä¹ç¦ã€å¸¦æœ‰åœ°ä¸‹è¶…市的日本百货åŽå ‚商场,以åŠæˆ‘家附近的自由市场和æ—边的便利店。
三æºé‡Œå¸‚场在希尔顿西一里左å³ï¼Œä¸‰çŽ¯å†…。大概也是从自由市场开始的,现在ç»è¿‡ç¿»ä¿®ï¼Œæ°´ç”µéƒ½æŽ¥å¥½ï¼Œä¸€æ¡200米的通é“,左å³å‡æ˜¯åº—é¢ã€‚把头是å–水果的,接ç€æ˜¯é¢é£Ÿã€è‚‰ç±»ã€æ°´äº§ã€è”¬èœã€‚å…¶ä¸å¤¹äº›å–干货和家用å“的店。东西都是没包装的。全羊挂ç€é¢‡ä¸ºå“人,生猛鱼虾,当场宰æ€ã€‚èœä¸Šå¸¸å¸¦äº›æ³¥ï¼Œå°¤å…¶æ˜¯æ ¹ç±»ã€‚
水果是亮点,ç§ç±»ç¹å¤šï¼Œè´¨é‡ã€ä»·é’±éƒ½ä¸é”™ã€‚比超市便宜是当然的,ä¸è¿‡ä¸»è¦æ˜¯å–ç»™å°èµ„高薪,比街头摊å当然贵多了。本地人ä¸å¸¸è§ï¼Œå¤§æ¦‚是觉得ä¸å€¼å§ã€‚我倒觉得跑一趟东西å¯ä»¥ä¹°é½ï¼Œè€æ¿é€‰çš„货好,åšç”Ÿæ„ä¹Ÿä¸“ä¸šã€‚å‘Šè¯‰ä½ è¿™ä¸ªç”œï¼Œé‚£ä¸ªè¦ç‰å‡ 天åƒï¼Œé‚£ç§é€ç¤¼å¥½ã€‚ 他们记性好,è§é¢å°±çŸ¥é“ä½ çš„ä¹ æƒ¯ï¼šé¦™è•‰è¦ç”Ÿç‚¹ï¼Œæ¢¨è¦ç†Ÿï¼Œä¸çˆ±è‰èŽ“,诸如æ¤ç±»ã€‚
店家照相都大大方方的。è€å¤–æ‹¿å•å相机或摄åƒæœºéƒ½æ²¡é—®é¢˜ã€‚电视电影也常æ¥æ‹å¤–æ™¯ã€‚ä»–ä»¬éƒ½çºµä½ ä¸€ä¹ï¼Œå†é€ä½ 个水果å°å°ã€‚
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