Observation from a local market
I remember once having a conversation with a globe trotter in Italy (he works for an NGO and gets assigned to different countries for projects) around the topic of markets. We agreed that the most interesting thing to do in a foreign country is to shop at their food markets. Observe well and you’ll understand so much more about the people that way, because, as the saying goes, you are what you eat.
Generally speaking, Italians are very much about fresh produce while Thai people seem more concerned about variety. A market in Italy will have the most beautiful fresh produce section, not a lot of variety per say, but they’re drop dead gorgeous fruits and vegetables. A market in Thailand will offer twenty different variety of fruits, and if it’s in season, there would five different types of one kind of produce (and they all taste a little different). The fruits and veggies themselves aren’t super polished or ‘beautiful’, but there’s plenty of choices. Almost too many.
The market in North America is about variety of brands. Fresh produce have different brand stickers on them. Salad lettuce are bought in pre-packaged bags, exactly the same stuff inside with different branding. There’s five different brands to choose from when you want a plain yogurt, or just water, for example.
This isn’t to say that the branding of food don’t exist in other countries. They do have brands for different types of food, and competing market for each. Of course they do. But the branding of food is what I’ve come to realize is the characteristic of the markets here, much more so than Italy or Thailand. And perhaps because this is precisely the culture of consumption, the marketers try to get more and more creative (or just crazy) to reach their target audience. We are what we consume.
So what does it say about the people when my local market stocks stuff like…
The Jimi Hendrix Experience Energy Drink (I kid you not):
420 water:
?