[ marketing ]

:: outdoor markets offer shoppers values beyond the prices of the goods for sale


before there were cities, there were markets - outdoor bazaars where trading was not just of goods and currency but of news, ideas, and cultures. in greece the market was where philosophers debated. in the middle east it was - and still is - right outside the mosque, the hub of cultural life.

the modern open-air market, be it farmers or flea, is still a cross section where worlds collide: the mennonite fruit grower, the chinese fisherman, the dominican with the pyramid of roasting meat. it is a structure that empowers by putting vendors in direct contact with customers. there is no middleman, no bored teen store clerk - no wordless impersonal exchange. prices are sometimes negotiable, and they include the added value of information. ask any question about a product; the guy selling it will know the answer. he grew the houseplant or caught the fish himself, carved the trinket or designed the hat, collected the jazz LPs or glass doorknobs for 25 years.

it is an impromptu economy - cash only, casual, under the radar. in other words it is a novelty for modern consumers, who have been pushed online into the big-box chain store. burned out on costco, urban professionals find they want to meet the farmer who grows their produce. the exchange is an attraction unto itself.

and that is another of the outdoor market's added values: it does not happen every day. most are intermittent and therefore an event, one that changes a little every time you experience it - a different season of produce, a new vendor, last summer's electronic toy replaced with another. vendors come and go, but the booths will remain. someone will always be shedding second hand goods, hawking homemade treats, trying to make a little money beyond the perimeters of the mainstream economy.

> from metropolis magazine, new york

posted by [d] at 12:59