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When the public is discussing the collapse of Daily Youxian, the once glorious wet market seems to have been forgotten.
People’s consumption habits are changing. Supermarkets, e-commerce, and takeaways are all diverting customer flow from wet markets. There are also fewer and fewer wet markets in big cities, and they have either been closed down or renovated.
"Flexibility" and "diversity" are the themes of the wet market. In addition to rich dishes and experiences, the flexible figure of the vegetable vendor is also constantly looking for new opportunities in the changing environment, looking for ever-changing connotations for this old and familiar place, giving it a new life. Therefore, even if the wet market is renovated, the discussion about the wet market will not stop.
The guests in this issue, Preserved Egg and Ren Qiran, are both personally experiencing and observing the changing wet market. Below is an podcast transcript of our conversation. After reading their observations, maybe you too will start to notice the changes in life nearby.
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Let’s start from the internet celebrity food market
Wang Hao: I saw a piece of news before that the Wuzhong Road Food Market in Shanghai and the fashion brand Prada did a joint event . Later, I saw a message on Douban that someone threw away the vegetables after buying them at the vegetable market, leaving only the bag containing the vegetables because it had the Prada trademark printed on it.
Of course: Yes, this matter was reported by many media at the time.
I went there once at the end of 2018. This is the core area of Shanghai where land is at a premium. Many stores have become very Western-style, designed to attract foreigners traveling on weekends and the urban middle class. After renovation at the end of 2019, the food court has become more modern and looks more upscale. So the collaboration with Prada is not surprising, because the whole neighborhood is becoming internet famous.
Wang Hao: I think both sides are moving closer to the middle. The wet market is being upgraded and becoming more fashionable, and Prada also wants to be more down-to-earth. People who originally buy Prada generally don’t go to the wet market.
preserved egg: This may also be Prada’s original intention. For Prada, the campaign was a success. But I saw news online that the vegetable vendors in the market actually don’t like this event. Because many young people only went to pose for photos and did not buy food, it also affected their business for 10 days.
●In 2021, during the joint event between Wuzhong Road Food Market and Prada, Prada paper bags were also used when buying vegetables. Photography: Gao Erqiang
Wang Hao: The upgrading and transformation of this kind of wet market may be interesting to outsiders, but what will the local residents think?
Of course: The Sanyuanli Wet Market in Beijing can be used as an example.
In recent years, Sanyuanli Vegetable Market has become more and more popular on the Internet, and it has become more and more like a tourist attraction. In 2019, they cooperated with an economist and put his book "Wet Market Economics" in wet markets to promote it. Later, another artist put his calligraphy works on display in the market.
Young people will regard it as a place where Internet celebrities check in and buy some things. But to local residents, it is no longer an ordinary vegetable market.
●In addition to economists entering the market, there are also artists entering the market. In May 2021, artist Qiu Zhijie held the exhibition "Food is the First Thing for the People - Qiu Zhijie's Writing in the Vegetable Market" at the Sanyuanli Food Market. The exhibition lasted for five days, which coincided with the May Day holiday, triggering a new round of Sanyuanli check-in craze. Photography: Xiaoshu
The main customers of Sanyuanli are residents of the embassy area and hotel chefs. They may go there to purchase when they are short of one or two ingredients. Because the products in Sanyuan are relatively complete, and there are some rare ingredients. But these activities are not directly related to local residents.
This is a vegetable market with different functions.But its premise is that this vegetable market is no longer a vegetable market that neighbors visit every day. It is in a relatively special location and has some special functions.
●The seafood sold at the Sanyuanli wet market stalls has been far away from the consumption needs of ordinary citizens. Photography: Zhong Shuru
Upgraded wet markets and squeezed-out citizens
Preserved eggs:In fact, in academia, we often say that the transformation of wet markets is often a process of gentrification (gentrification). To put it bluntly, it means becoming "tall" Up". The environment has improved and the wet market is no longer dirty, but the fishy smell may no longer exist. After renovation, it will attract chain merchants to come in directly to rent stalls to sell goods, and it will also add seafood and other items that ordinary citizens find expensive. Once
becomes expensive, the customer group it faces will be different. In other words, the process of gentrification of the wet market is related to the process of surrounding urban renewal. For example, after all the old buildings in the surrounding residential areas were demolished and new commercial buildings or high-end residential areas were built, the income level of the surrounding residents also increased.
Wang Hao: Are you saying that as the consumers around you have changed, the shape of the wet market has also changed accordingly? Is that what you mean?
preserved egg: may also be the other way around. Some investors saw business opportunities and first renovated the wet market, then attracted surrounding people and expanded the service radius of the wet market.
Originally, the people who come to buy food may only be residents within a 10-minute walk. But if the wet market has parking facilities, it can be directly transformed into a shopping mall. In a vegetable market in a shopping mall, its service radius can reach 5 kilometers, 10 kilometers or even further. If it is built into an internet celebrity attraction, it can attract a wider range of people.
Wang Hao: As you said, the radiation is 5 kilometers to 10 kilometers. In fact, it is not a wet market in the traditional concept.
Actually: is more like a facade. I have been to a spice shop in Sanyuanli. They have made Sanyuanli a storefront. When customers come, they will find the shop, chat with the boss, and add him on WeChat. He can then contact these customers and ship the spices across the city.
Because for many Beijing residents, there are only a few stores where you can buy Southeast Asian spices. For example, if you want to eat Nyonya rice dumplings or Malay pastries, you can only buy ingredients from them. is equivalent to turning this place into his traffic entrance. His customers are not only within 10 kilometers or 15 kilometers, but also cover the entire city of Beijing.
But at the same time, are there really only high-end residents around? Not really. If you walk a few steps, there is the Xiaoguan Vegetable Market in Zuojiazhuang next to Sanyuanli. It used to be the urban-rural fringe area, and they are very down-to-earth.
I know a vegetable seller in Zuojiazhuang. He told me that when he started selling vegetables there in the 1990s, there were still large areas of farmland there. At first, they hired a few workers to cover the land to grow vegetables, but later they found that they could no longer grow because the surrounding embassy district and other buildings were built, so he became a vegetable vendor in this market.
In fact, residents still need cheap food, because the food in Sanyuan is too expensive for them, and they don't eat those things.
preserved egg: So gentrification has caused a process of expulsion. It evicted civilians from communities near the food market.
There are more than 200 wet markets in Hong Kong, more than 100 of which are owned by Hong Kong's Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, and more than 90 are owned by a real estate development company called Link.
Starting in 2015, they have outsourced more than 90 of their wet markets to various developers, specializing in high-end wet markets. Inside, you can buy Boston lobster , Snowflake Wagyu beef, etc., which forced the rent to increase and the original vendors could no longer operate. Residents around can't afford food because the food is too expensive, so they have to go to other places, even Shenzhen, to buy food.
Therefore, a small protest movement has also developed in Hong Kong, called "Fight against Link Chan Wet Market Hegemony" .
● ●The old lady in the Wangjiazhai Vegetable Market in Shanghai stopped in front of the counter with her waist bent. Photography: Kong Xiaoyan
The hard life of a fishmonger
Of course: I remember that Mr. Preserved Egg even experienced being a vegetable vendor. Can you tell us a little bit about what life is like as a vegetable vendor?
preserved egg: Selling vegetables is really hard. When I was doing research before, I worked at a vendor selling mackerel for three or four months. I only went in the afternoon and was already exhausted, but their working hours would be more than 12 hours.
There are many shops run by two couples in the market. Usually one person is responsible for getting the goods, and the other person is responsible for selling fish at the stall. Basically, the family spends their daily life setting up the stall there.
I did research in Hainan. The elderly there like to get up at six o'clock to buy groceries. In order to receive this wave of customers, the vegetable market starts to get busy at 4 or 5 o'clock. Seafood comes earlier, usually at one or two o'clock in the morning, and you have to go to the dock to purchase. There are as many as 20 or 30 types of products purchased in a day. It starts at five or six o'clock in the morning and continues until eight or nine o'clock in the evening, so only two people can work in shifts.
Generally speaking, those who sell vegetables and fish have a very hard time. Many people told me that they only have one or two days off during the Chinese New Year. During the rest of the year, unless they have something to do at home, they keep working at the stall.
Although some fishmongers make quite a lot of money, most of them have average incomes. In Hainan, the vegetable stall run by two parents-in-law earns 100,000 to 150,000 a year, which is similar to the local average income. However, in comparison, their working hours are very long.
Wang Hao: The place you went to is a fish stall. In order to pay attention to freshness, do they go to the seaside market every day to purchase fish?
preserved eggs: The sources of seafood are also very diverse. The fish stall I went to sold Spanish mackerel, which is only caught in the winter. However, in the local culture of Hainan, "there is no feast without fish", so a banquet must include mackerel, so it is a product that is available all year round. So in autumn and winter you can sell freshly caught fish, but in spring and summer you can only sell frozen ones.
Nowadays, there are fewer and fewer fish caught naturally. The South China Sea has a four-month moratorium on fishing. The moratorium is from May 1st to August 31st. During this period, you are not allowed to go to sea, so there will be relatively few seafood products. During this time, farmed fish will be supplied. There are more fish catches from the second half to the end of the year, and fresh aquatic products are brought in from the pier basically every day.
●The seafood woman at the market has lunch. Photography: Zhong Shuru
●Teacher Preserved Egg’s Field Notes
●The price of Ningxia cabbage also comes from afar. The price in Guangzhou Pearl Market is almost half that of the Shanghai wet market. The variety and cheap vegetables rely on the complex distribution network of suppliers. . Photography: Tianle
The Supermarketization of Vegetable Markets
Wang Hao: I see that there are two different situations in the vegetable market, one is the self-employed vegetable seller, and the other is the staff employed by the market. From your observation, is there a trend of the vegetable market evolving from a mere venue to a direct operation?
preserved egg: This is also a very complex issue. For example, at some pork stalls in the Guangzhou wet market, he may be employed by the company and only sell so-called "organic ingredients." These companies directly rent or buy the stall and only sell their own products.
But the proportion of such stalls in the wet market is not very high. But the more expensive the rents and the higher the profits, the more likely this agglomeration is to occur.
Wang Hao: So if a wet market is full of such vertical sales stalls, will it become like a supermarket?
Of course: I think may be a little different from supermarkets. Now even if some cities try to supermarketize their wet markets, they will mix the two types of stalls.
I remember that in some places in Beijing, if a wet market wants to receive government subsidies, a certain proportion of stalls must be non-contracted, either directly operated or franchised by a company. So the government is actually encouraging this model.
At the same time, for customers, when companies and self-employed people are mixed, they will have more choices. You can have a vegetable vendor you are familiar with. For example, if you want to eat something today, you can tell the vegetable vendor. I think this is where the wet market’s stickiness lies.
preserved egg: Yes, I strongly agree. In the final analysis, consumers "vote with their mouths." If they are all directly operated by the company, the price of the vegetables will definitely not be cheap. Do the surrounding residents agree? Will elderly residents buy here again?
Therefore, it is unlikely that all of them will become corporate operations. Instead, as Qiran said, they may become more diversified and form a price echelon, which is more conducive to attracting new customer flows.
●After the renovation, in addition to fresh food, the vegetable market in Beijing has also been mixed with other shops. Picture: Shitongjun
Pre-made dishes in the vegetable market
Wang Hao: I observe some friends around me and wonder why they are reluctant to go to the vegetable market. It’s not that they don’t pay attention to the quality of food, but they are unwilling to bargain with vendors and want a standardized shopping experience.
I read a survey two days ago, asking "Do young people nowadays go to supermarkets?", but the vegetable market was ignored. It seems that supermarkets are the representative of offline retail now. It is a luxury for young people not to shop online.
I wonder if the vegetable market will have this sense of crisis that "young people will no longer go to the vegetable market in the future."
preserved egg: The crisis of has actually happened. Otherwise, many vegetable markets are trying to make pre-made dishes ? Cut and wash all the vegetables. If you want to have a cooking experience, you can go home and stir-fry a few times. This is also a way for them to survive in this very cruel business environment.
Why are vegetable markets getting farther and farther away from young people? I think young people can't appreciate how good the food is. Pick a handful of cabbage and don’t even know what variety it is? Which one is sweet? What should the taste be like? But the elderly may be more particular, so they can appreciate the benefits of wet markets.
Wang Hao: Yesterday when we went to the vegetable market, I discovered something I had never seen before in Beijing. When cutting chicken feet, the vegetable seller had to chop off the front nails of the chicken feet. And the vendors can process it exactly according to the customer's requirements.
Of course: You may not realize before coming to Guangzhou that there are some differences in wet markets in different places.
The vendors here can specially mix the meat into meat patties for you, and chop it twice for you, because the chopped meat patties here are said to be delicious. Later, he will also persuade you to buy side dishes such as water chestnuts and mushrooms for you to add. In fact, this is a disguised preset dish.
●All kinds of cooked food sold in Guangzhou wet market. Photography: Tianle
People and food under the squeeze of real estate
Of course: However, I think that young people do not have time to cook, and the crisis faced by the vegetable market is also the same in the entire economy - all because of land prices. problem. If the land rent is very high, how can it be possible for young people to live well, or to allow more space for the development of vegetable markets? The forces squeezing young people are the same as those squeezing wet markets.
I think Hong Kong’s example foresees: When a city’s real estate reaches a very dense and involuted level, what will happen to food?
In Hong Kong, many elderly people do not choose what is delicious or not delicious. In order to pay the rent, they do not have so much money to spend on food. First, the elderly will buy cans because they are cheap. Second, Hong Kong’s wet markets are not the cheapest place to buy food. Elderly people will go to cheaper supermarkets to buy food.
There is a very famous supermarket chain in Hong Kong called Jiabao Supermarket, which sells the cheapest vegetables and meat. A large refrigerator is full of beef or chicken legs. Three chicken drumsticks cost 25 Hong Kong dollars. They are all frozen meat produced in Brazil or the United States. The origin of these meats cannot be traced, and no one knows if they have been frozen for 5 years.
But there are many elderly people shopping there, because this is the only thing they can choose. If we are controlled by the food industry and the capitalization and real estate of the entire society reaches the level of Hong Kong, the wet market may become a similar business format. It is just a place where you can replenish the food you need for survival every day, not how good or fresh the food is.
It would be very sad if it really became like that.
preserved eggs: Are the vegetables in the wet market really cheap? This is a question mark.
I compared prices when doing research. I went to the wet market and the local supermarket to check the prices of more than a dozen of the most common vegetables, and found that most of the vegetables in the supermarket were cheaper than those in the wet market.
But why do people still want to go to the wet market? It’s not just about price, because not everyone is price-sensitive. At this time, the basis for the survival of a wet market is whether it can provide a variety of choices, real fresh quality, and services that meet the needs of local people.
● In a vegetable market in Guangdong, one stall can provide more than a dozen different types of ginger, fully meeting the exquisite cooking needs of the locals. Photography: Tianle
Avoiding pitfalls requires experience
Of course: Many vegetable vendors know what local people cook. For example, when you buy ribs at a vegetable market in Guangzhou, the vegetable vendor will ask you if you want to make soup. So if you buy pork ribs for soup, he will ask you: Do you want some lean meat with it? Because it is paired with a little lean meat, the soup will be more fragrant.
The vegetable market contains many local dishes, just like a hidden menu.
Wang Hao: I found that on the one hand, the stall owner will give you some suggestions, but on the other hand, consumers also need to have a certain ability to identify. Like whether cabbage is good or not, this is also a kind of food knowledge in the wet market.
preserved egg: This really depends on the vendor’s original knowledge reserve.
Let me tell you a very cruel reality. Not all vendors are good people. Why do some young people not like to go to the vegetable market? Because it does happen that they are short of weight. There is also something called "don't eat if you're not familiar with it", which means the more familiar it is, the more likely it is to be slaughtered.
It's not universal, but the greengrocer doesn't care either. Because sometimes they connect not only local residents, but also local small restaurants, and the orders they take from them are much more than those sold to individual customers.
Actually: I think young people may be more likely to be ripped off in the wet market.
There is a threshold for buying vegetables in the wet market. You need to know after what time every day the food may not be fresh. For example, if you go to buy seafood in the afternoon, some items will be spoiled. But if a street vendor sees that you are a young person, he may sell you these things that are almost broken, because young people may not mind it very much and cannot tell the difference.
preserved egg: So it really depends on personal experience to identify, and you can’t over-glorify the wet market.
As soon as a young person walks in, the vendor will notice that you have cooking experience. When buying ribs, you immediately say: "The one you gave me is the back row, I want the front row." The vendor will know that an expert is here, and I can't fool you. This is when you can really start to enjoy the fun of buying food at the vegetable market. Therefore, we should encourage everyone to go to the vegetable market more and cook more.
Of course: ’s beautification of the vegetable market is also the background for the emergence of various Internet celebrity vegetable markets today. It turns out that the wet market is a place where you usually buy vegetables, but because young people rarely go there, it seems very precious. Originally I didn't go to the vegetable market for a year, but I went there occasionally and felt that everything was fresh.
It has been quite difficult to do small catering in recent years. According to my feeling, especially after the epidemic, there are fewer migrant workers in the city, so the entire group of people that small restaurants are based on is also decreasing. Has it also affected the operation of the wet market?
preserved egg: will do it. Wet markets and small restaurants are both part of the informal economy, and there is a relationship in which both prosper and lose. Nowadays, many chain restaurants have their own independent supply chains and no longer rely on wet markets, which will also lead to a decrease in business in some wet markets.
There are many sources of pressure in the wet market. One is the change in the consumption habits of young people, the other is the change in the business environment, and there is also the pressure of urban renewal. These three major sources of stress are pressing down on the wet market like three mountains, but we still need it now.
recording arrangement / editor: Wang Hao
