Friday, 15 December 2017

juxtaposition



Every Friday I go to the vegetable markets. It is the central distribution point for all fruit, veg and flowers for the whole of Sydney and it is open to the public every day but there is a parking fee and purchases have to be made by the carton. On Fridays there is no parking fee after 9.30 am and retail quantities are the order of the day. Prices are about half what you would expect to pay in a large supermarket so Friday is a busy day.
The markets are the only place I have ever experienced where retail customers shop in a genuinely wholesale environment. This is a place which has a fleet of rubbish trucks and over 900 forklifts so the addition of live music is a little unexpected but just sometimes there is a singer or band juxtaposed with the utility of the setting.
I don't know who they were but this was today's offering.

15 comments:

  1. We do not have similar facilities anywhere in India. One can of course go to large older markets where the cost of buying vegetables and grocery is lower than what will be in the suburbs but, the cost of going to and fro will wipe off that advantage. There are local shops and megamarts where everything is available in all suburbs. We can even order online for home deliveries.

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    1. i could buy our fruit & veg a lot closer to home, not in my suburb but the next one, but it would be significantly more expensive and not so fresh. In the days when I worked more I would have wanted the convenience of local shopping. Do you ever order online? I have never done that

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    2. I do it all the time at https://www.bigbasket.com/sp/hpa-ss-christmas-new-year/?nc=b-cp-hp-sec1&b_t=cp_hp_sec1&b_camp=hp_christmas_specialty_1600x460_wo-7thnov&t_from_ban=403514&t_pos=4&t_ch=desktop

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    3. They have everything! do you think they ship to Australia?

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  2. What fun.
    We don't have anything similar, but when I can I go to the farmers' markets. Cheaper than the supermarkets, often a bigger variety, and less insistence on perfect shapes/colours/sizes.

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    1. you know i have never been to a farmers market? i really should do that

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  3. Do they usually sing about fruit and vegetables? Louis Armstrong’s “You’re the Apple of My Eye” , "Strawberry Fields Forever" by The Beatles and "The World is Just a Great Big Onion" by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell?

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    1. I d on't k now but if they were singing about Yorkshire puddings I wouldn't listen

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  4. If the prices are only about half of normal supermarket prices, no wonder it's so busy! I don't know of anywhere like that in Belfast.

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  5. Looks a bit like an auction site we visit in Suffolk, except that there, men auction off whole turkeys or gigantic boxes of carrots.

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    1. Interesting! this place auctions the first box of mangoes of the year and the first box of cherries, both for charity

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  6. what a cool place and the addition of music is just the sweet topping!

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    1. the music is always unexpected but always good!

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  7. That group is very good even while battling the acoustics! I don't go to the farmer's market because I am too happy sleeping in on Saturday morning. But our grocer's produce is just as fresh as they buy much of it locally. It would be fun to go to a big place like you have there, though, just to see what there is.

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    Replies
    1. Saturday morning sleep ins are very worth having!

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