A special market

Paddy’s market

Woolworth, Coles, Kmart and ALDI are the well-known supermarkets, where most of Sydney dwellers go to. But I find a more interesting place to buy groceries, Paddy’s market in the China town.

There are several ways you can reach this market: Arrive in the Central station and ask anyone where Paddy’s market or Haymarket is, you will get to it in 5-minute walk. If you have plenty of money and prefer luxury shops, go to the 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd floors. But if you want to forget the comfort of modern life and go back to the simple trading way of Chinese people, visit the ground floor to enjoy a busy, noisy, crowding and smelling market.

The ground floor market only opens from Thursday to Sunday. Commodities are all sorts of fruits, vegetables, Asian herbs, sea food, pork and chicken but fruits and vegetables are the major. You can even shop round to buy cosmetics, souvenirs, handicraft products or clothes.

Now, I will focus on the part for housewives of Paddy’s. Here, customers contact directly with sellers directly. They can taste, consider before saying “Hey, I need a plastic bag” and grasp as much as they want.

Paddy’s market has a wide range of prices for commodities. The price is much cheaper than that in supermarkets or other suburbs and prices of the same groceries are different. Therefore, you should walk around the market before deciding where you should stop. The quality, of course, is also varied. You can buy apples at a cheaper price with good quality or with worse quality. Then, you must have clever eyes to select the best products.

Inside Paddy’s grocery

But you don’t have much time to think about that because you are attracted by funny sellers and hurried the exciting atmosphere of hundreds of people, who go to and fro to find things for their next week’s menus.

Last Thursday, when I picked up a pear and ask the handsome seller “Is it sweet”, he replied “As sweet as you”. I bought a kilo immediately. Sometimes, I lengthen the walking time around the market to listen to the “advertising songs” of sellers. Those advertisements are spoken, no, are sung in high, low or hoarse voice, with melody and characteristics of the sellers. These things make Paddy’s like a market community.

Paddy’s is the pride of Chinese people in Sydney. They call it not only a market but an “Australian icon” (Wow).

The fast development of Sydney with high-rise buildings, modern shopping centers and supermarkets had threatened the existence of Paddy’s several times but both Sydney Council and Chinese people tried to preserve this special feature of Chinatown area til these days.

Paddy’s still maintains its open-air spirit. More than that, it is an ideal shopping place for international students and any Australian people who want to save their family budget in the hard time of inflation in Sydney.