🖖 Open-air markets

Here’s what I wrote on my commute to/from work yesterday:

Today’s my first day on the job.

On a Sunday no less.

The area we’re at while our apartment is under renovation has a street market on Sundays.

It can get crowded.

But not early in the morning when they’re setting up.

On Sunday mornings I get to walk through the whole thing. Every stand abundant and colourful. I walked past a mound of breakfast radishes up to my head.

The same street hosts markets on Tuesdays and Thursdays too, but Sundays are the biggest. That’s what’s cool- the markets aren’t everywhere at the same time.

Paris has a whole infrastructure surrounding the markets.

The day before the market you have a team from the city go around and set up the stalls. Team insert metal legs in into permanent metal holes in the sidewalk. Each of them attached by three crossbars at the top.

Across the front.

Across the back.

And one between the two.

The crossbars are then covered with a thick red and white striped tarpaulin.

The day of the market the vendors come and set up everything else they need. Tables for produce displays. Long mounds of crushed ice for the seafood vendors. Two meter tall rotisserie ovens for the chicken people.

Next thing you know there are crowds of people for the next few hours.

A good time to catch up on your gossip.

But by 14:00, everyone is gone and it’s time to pack up what you didn’t sell.

All that remains is a metal ribcage of an extinct giant, stacks of wooden produce crates and wilted vegetable trimmings.

Later in the evening a third team comes by to power-wash the entire sidewalk and remove the debris.

The next day, teams roll up the tarpaulins and collect all the metal stall legs to take them to the next street market destination.

First off, I hope infrastructure like this can spread to other parts of the world. Open-air markets foster community and gives quality food producers an economic opportunity.

I think markets will be a human tradition that lasts for millennia.

They already have too.

Too often, in bigger cities, markets are treated like special occasions. I mean they’re not held frequently. Maybe once a month or so.

Cities could easily put in place the infrastructure needed to have continuously rolling markets. The people would love more food choices. It would also mean more exposure and income for agriculturists.

Markets: the original social network.

Who wants this?

Well it looks like the younger generations want to make more altruistic choices. Choices that support the greater good over the already-established big brands.

What’s a better way to make connections and strengthen the economy than with markets?

Worst case scenario: you created some jobs. Those teams that set up and break down the stalls and the teams that clean the streets afterwards.

Sounds like a win.

Markets could even be enough to reintroduce seasonality back to bigger populations.

I know my experiences growing up in suburban America were void of seasons. Tomatoes all year long.

Seasonality introduces people to new items. It allows the soil to rest while different plants are growing.

By nature markets are ideal for neighbourhoods- communities. Networks that can help each other.

Trading services. Information. You can sell your antiques and old baby things. Chances to take a breather and and be with other humans.

Opportunities that many feel are missing.

As we talk about the future, some of the answers are back in the past.

Wherever there are humans, there will be markets.