I lean toward the market feel. It’s so much more welcoming and I feel more accomplished lol. The open air feels more inviting and just bustling in the throng of people is fun.
Supermarkets in Malawi 🇲🇼 are relatively small. The staff is not that motivated which is understandable. It breaks my heart how they have to be so mechanical for hours.
Not to say vendors are free of worries and disadvantages though.
I buy stuff from all sorts of places. I’m pretty serious about food and cooking, and I run through a pretty wide variety of cultures and regional variation in making my food. So for me, this is how I buy:
Fresh produce in season: street markets
Fresh produce out of season (greenhouse grown or shipped in from another latitude): Whole Foods
Mainstream American prepackaged foods: nearest big box corporate supermarket.
Day to day meat, dairy, and seafood (chicken, beef, pork, shrimp): Whole Foods
Specialty meat (aged stuff, unusual cuts): local specialty butcher, ethnic grocery stores
Specialty seafood (live seafood, less common items): specialty seafood shop
Fancy cheeses: cheese store in my neighborhood, occasionally Whole Foods
Various ethnic specialities (Kim chi, tortillas, paneer, certain types of Chinese/Korean/Vietnamese vegetables, Mexican/Indian spices) that are perishable: ethnic grocery stores
Unusual or imported prepackaged or shelf stable foods/spices: ethnic grocery stores, Amazon, other online stores depending on the item.
My twin works at a grocery store, so we shop there because employee discount.
We sometimes go to farmers markets though for fresh produce or produce the grocery doesn’t sell. Like winesap apples for canning apple butter.
I love me a puree, will definitely co sider making apple butter.
The one that allows me to do the smallest possible human iteration.
I’m not particularly enthusiastic about grocery shopping. I go to LIDL because it’s the cheapest.
I prefer local markets for fresh and domestically grown produce, and because I prefer giving to the community instead of to chains. However, there are things which can only be found in larger markets because they are not grown/availble locally or currently not in season.
Local markets for quality and price, supermarkets for variety.
That’s nice!
Most trading centers in Malawi have small stores which sell the products which are not made locally.
I do take a trip once a month to replenish farm supplies at the nearest city.
I mean, I kinda like both? Supermarkets for resiliency and the benefits of scale. Markets for the kind of stuff you probably wouldn’t find in a supermarket and the benefits of a broader marketplace.
Local markets every day. I am fortunate enough to have been to several markets in Morocco and would shop there before any supermarket. Getting everything I want takes more time, and sometimes meant visiting more than one market. Worth it
I am a different type of enthusiast
Don’t have any local markets. In the south you can pick up some groceries straight from the farmer but I live too far north for farming.
What all Produce and other wares are in that image?
Would love to know, too. To my European eyes, it looks like onions, potatoes, apples and tomatoes, but surely they have some different produce there. Whatever is in the bottom-left does look unfamiliar, at least…
You have nailed almost everything 👏 . To the bottom right are a few sweet potatoes. The bottom middle has unripe tomatoes. These are at times sold to ripen later on. Locals do prefer buying most commodities ripe.
This reminds me of the market at the Gerudo oasis place in BOTW
