Markets

Our internship is not a cookie cutter, standard internship, so we were prepared for some days to be slow. Ok, nothing to do. Today was such a day and we decided to complete a project we had been given ahead of time, in the event of such days.

It took us to downtown Mumbai and we visited the old Crawford market. The market is predominantly fresh produce, sweets and other snacks, and hair care. Really. But the setting is amazing.

Inside the old Crawford Market building is a market with separate booths and “roofs” (the real roof leaks). In between you can catch a glimpse of the old market hall and it is surprisingly quiet inside. A slightly greenish hue floods the entire area and you walk down narrow walkways lined with hundreds of booths.

We were immediately greeted by such friendly “volunteers” who tried their hardest to convince us that it was mandatory for visitors to be accompanied by a “numbered official”. We even saw an “official” laminated card and a metal number that, as Hanna put it, looked like the pennies that you can squeeze out of the penny machines.

We weren’t too sure about this “official” even though a “complete coincidental bystander” assured us that it was completely true. Finally, a woman told us that there was no such need and as I turned around to tell our friendly “official” he was amazingly quickly gone.

We walked slowly up and down the various aisles and people from booths in other aisles came greeting us, wanting us to come visit their booth. A part of me becomes hardened as we leave the apartment because you have to, otherwise India will swallow you up like a snack. But once back, I cannot help but to think of how hard so many people work to try to get business.

We left to visit another market, the Maneesh market. This is an outdoor market along the streets and again, vendors would follow us for a long time, trying to convince us to visit their booth. One guy got a little too close for my comfort and after several outright “go away”, I finally turned to him and said that my husband does not like it when I talk to strangers (sorry Daren!). He took off really quickly and lucky for me before he had thought the logic through.

As wonderful as the visual merchandising was at the market in Kutch and the Crawford Market, as appalling it was at so many of the “regular” stores. We had already been amazed at the lack of visual merchandising at the local mall and poor use of window displays. After today, I start understanding where it stems from. We took some pictures of several bridal stores and quickly found out that the store owners want a Rs20 fee for each picture.

In India, everything is available, if you have the money.