Tag: bazaar
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Making ends meat
Nas sells meat while her husband cruises the city streets in his tuk-tuk as a driver. I asked her why she chose to sell meat in the market rather than sell clothes. She explained that selling meat is more convenient because she doesn’t need to pay for the supply upfront, unlike clothes which requires cash…
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Stronger after a fishy history
Ny comes from a family of fishermen, and she has always sold fish. However, everything changed during the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s when all businesses were forced to shut down. Ny was forced to go to the countryside to work in the fields, while scholars and artists were tragically shot. When Ny described…
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What are you cooking today?
I step into a market in Cambodia. The atmosphere is dim. Bulbs hanging listlessly from zinc rooftops. Maret is perched on a wooden platform surrounded by raw meat that she is chopping on a circular wooden block. Softly, she says: “I quit school to support my parents, they live in the countryside. They told me…
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Reaping Cash
Chenda used to work in the fields of Cambodia, but the harvest could not support her family, so she started a business in Siem Reap to reap cash. Her advice to shopkeepers: be friendly. Business is all about good relationships! Chenda says that the worst thing about her business is when other vendors undercut her…
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107 Hawker Centres in Singapore
While I was doing my doctoral research in Sociology, I was spending a lot of time exploring hawker centres and markets in Singapore. Every day, I would look for new sites. Where are all these 107 hawker centres located? This led me to wonder: which markets are clustered close together? Which markets are more isolated?…
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Rice bowl
Rice is a staple food in Cambodia, and any crisis rapidly impacts Sokun*’s business. For example, during a tense border dispute with Thailand in 2008, all her rice was sold out. Similarly, in 2013, devastating floods swept across the land, leaving her without any rice to sell. Economic anxiety is immediately felt in her business,…
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Surviving from day to day
Conversations with men and women running small businesses in Siem Reap (Cambodia). Why did they go into business? How did they choose their trade? What helps them to survive? A tale of education, rural-urban migration, and personal aspiration. Fresh juice from the street. Just call out your favourite fruits, and he’ll whip it up on…
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Markets in Siem Reap (Cambodia)
We enter the mystical world of Siem Reap, a city in the north of Cambodia and home to the legendary Angkor Wat (“Temple City”) built in the 12th century that hosted around a million inhabitants in its time, making it one of the largest cities in the world before the Industrial Revolution. In the 1970s,…
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Junk
“The market is very dirty,” Terence says, tugging gently at his singlet to show the grime. “Dirty and hot.” His mother had been selling coffee powder for over 20 years and decided to bring her son into the business after his National Service. Terence obliged and has continued for the past 13 years. “Surprisingly, and…
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![15 minutes in a hawker centre in Singapore [Part II]](https://shopkeeperstories.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/31.jpg?w=1024)
15 minutes in a hawker centre in Singapore [Part II]
Urban Runway The hawker centre in Singapore is noisy and spontaneous and the centre of gravity for much of our routine social action. In this post, I’d like to present 10 scenes of activity in exactly the same place. Far from the glitz and glamour of Marina Bay Sands, this is the ordinary picture of life that most of…
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![15 minutes in a hawker centre in Singapore [Part I]](https://shopkeeperstories.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/15.jpg?w=1024)
15 minutes in a hawker centre in Singapore [Part I]
Urban Runway While drinking a mug of sugarcane juice, I took out my camera to document the people walking by in the exact same spot. This set of photos captures the mix of the crowd from “suits” to “slippers” to “stylish seniors” on bikes. Welcome to the tropics of Singapore! You can see Part II of the…
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Come along for the journey!
Shopkeeper Stories is all about people who bring their creative energy to our cities with their small businesses! Join us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter (@ShopkeeperStory) – wherever you might be – so that you can see the latest photoshoots as they happen, and we’ll let you know when we’re in your city! Be dazzled, learn something new, and…
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What do you sell, O ye merchants?
The markets offer a close and fierce intimacy with the traders who sell their wares. This 19th century poem captures the thrilling encounter with objects foreign and familiar while strolling through the colourful chaos of a bazaar. In The Bazaars of Hyderabad What do you sell, O ye merchants? Richly your wares are displayed, Turbans of crimson and silver, Tunics of…
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