Vic Market: Melbourne’s Hidden Treasure
Generally going to markets is just short of punishment for me, so when Saayan one of my friend living in Melbourne suggested to visit Vic Market second day of our visit to Melbourne it was bit puzzling, knowing that even Saayan is not fan of shopping. Anyways since my wife was quite interested and I needed to find some small mementos and gifts to bring back, in addition to not having any other better suggestion to go on a cloudy morning, I agreed.
So we got picked up by Saayan at 10am and reached a huge parking by the Vic Market in less than 15 minutes. Looking around it was not quite I was expecting to see in Australia, it seemed more like the weekend markets of Asia, quite like Jatuchok in Bangkok or some of the markets in India, minus the crowd and some of the garbage that inevitably build up around such market thanks to better garbage disposal arrangement and cold weather. Vic Market is a extended series of shades, some are temporary stalls setup for vegetables, toys and trinkets and more permanent looking stalls for the seafood, meat and deli sellers. Makes me wonder how come it takes educated business managers years to figure the importance of specialization while the simple cheese sellers get it easily.
Options and selections are amazing, interesting to see the specialization for the Deli sellers, some just focused on Cheese, some sausages others just butter or Olives, interestingly makes me think how applicable the learning’s of specializing is when it comes to selling, whether its software or Deli.
As it goes, this market is quite complete, including snack foods, some road side entertainment and some pets for purchase for the kids. The push carts were available for rent from some interesting small stalls at the entrance. We came across music that seemed like from some South American nation like Peru was being enjoyed by gathered crowd and gave me some opportunity for some snaps.
After about 2 hours, buying a bunch of stuff that I never thought would get there and without realizing that shopping can be painful we were done along with scores of interesting photographs, I would highly recommend anyone with half a day after walking around the city and visiting the gardens to visit Vic Market.