From street markets to wet markets to supermarkets

Posted by noelbynature under Lifestyle
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Most people would probably do their grocery-shopping at a supermarket today, and less at a wet market. And the younger generation would probably have no idea of what a street market would look like:

You can still find street markets in Malaysia, either open every day or on designated evenings. Jerome describes the transition from street markets to the wet markets:

There are these things that you may not expect young boys to enjoy like going to the dentist, or perhaps having a haircut, or accompanying Mum to the market. I for one detested the visit to the dentist and the barber. For some strange reason though, I did, for a while at least, enjoy following my mother on her regular visits to the Lorong 4 market, which was located across the road from where we lived in Toa Payoh.

By the time I got to do that, street markets had started to vanish from Singapore, and living in a spanking new HDB estate, we had the relative luxury of going to a covered market where market vendors were allocated a cubicle like space, complete with electricity and running water, from which they could sell their goods. Still though, going to the market could really be a rather unpleasant and sometimes traumatic experience for a four year old boy, having to tread over the wet slippery and rather messy looking floor tiles, at the risk of not just slipping and falling, but also of having ones toes being stomped on by a cha-kiak clad foot, as well as being forced to inhale the seemingly foul mix of smells that came from the live chickens and ducks, and displays of fish and fresh pork, that permeated the air.

Read more about the Toa Payoh wet market here. Today, we have super- and even hyper-markets. I wonder what the next generation of marketing groceries will be like - delivered to your doorstep? Rearranged molecules from a food replicator? While we can only wait for what will happen in the future, perhaps someone can fill in the blanks with the transition from the ‘wet’ market to air-conditioned comfort in the supermarket!