Morning starts early for nearby vendors at Tuol Tompoung Market in Phnom Penh. In one corner, sellers offload raw meat and fish on to platters as the aroma of a fresh catch circulates. The din of merchants contacting across the aisles gets louder as the day grinds on. Slim alleyways are lined with low table stalls filled with a number of goods as customers wind their way through, attempting to nab the freshest create at a bargain.
Sellers stock a huge variety of items ranging from fresh vegetables to meat, to fabric and jewellery. But customers can also find other items like timepieces, electronics, household devices, and even get a new hair-do on the way out.
Within Phnom Penh, probably the most prominent traditional markets are Central Marketplace also known as Phsar Thmei, Toul Tompong, Orussey, and others. These traditional markets are among the most vibrant public spaces Cambodian cities have to offer. Some say one can get to know a town through its conventional markets, as they best reflect the city’s identity.
But since Phnom Penh adjustments and modernises, the town may be at risk of dropping these culturally essential spots. If these types of social spaces vanished, it could result in a bigger divide between users of these communities.
Modern consumerism
New amenities and designs, a variety of luxury sells and food choices, and arcade areas with a bowling street and movie theatres make modern department stores a growing popular destination for shopping and enjoyment.
With the country’s quick economic growth, Cambodians are experiencing a new level of consumerism. Considering that Cambodia transformed from the low-income to a low-middle-income country in 2015 , its GDP flower constantly for the past 10 years. Largely due to outfit exports and tourism, Cambodia’s economy preserved an average annual growth rate of 7. 7 percent among 1998 and 2019, becoming one of the quickest-growing economies in the world.
Consequently, this brings about benefits for its people. The population loves an influx of recent and modern services and goods in the retailing sectors. More and more Cambodians are usually flocking to modern buying centres and other more convenient plus ‘modernised’ alternatives.
There is a clear increase in shopping mall construction in Phnom Penh, such as Aeon, Eden Garden, and Noro Mall.
This boost is partly because of population growth, improves in disposable earnings, the growing ease of shopping, and ease of access interest rate just for loans from microfinance institutions.
Beside the various platforms of modern markets, e-commerce is also battling the way to be part of the particular equation in defining this new tradition for Cambodian customer habits.
With the Covid-19 outbreak resulting in city lockdowns and the extended closure of physical markets, more people are turning to the convenience of using their mobile phones to order food and various other products delivered to their own doorsteps.
This movement can be shaping a new type of consumerism in Cambodian society. The slower yet steady switch from traditional in order to modern retail postures a potential threat to the existing shopping traditions of traditional markets.
But there is worth that traditional marketplaces can provide that can not be found as effortlessly in flashy buying centres, and some of these benefits are much a lot more abstract than costly clothes, jewellery or designer bags. Traditional marketplaces provide neighbourhoods and residents with a feeling of identity, feelings of community, plus a space to connect.
A social asset
Despite the cluttered plus sometimes dilapidated paths, dense with goods on all sides, traditional markets stay an integral social asset, one in which fortifies the cohesion associated with Cambodian communities.
The physical environment of traditional markets enable close and personal connections among the vendors as well as between vendors plus their customers. The compactness of the market’s interior, the slim walkways, the shut proximity from one vendor’s allocated space towards the other. These functions naturally generate interpersonal interactions within this community.
Among vendors whom sell the same products, there is not always the competition. Sometimes vendors are happy to immediate their customers to a neighbour’s stall close by for items that are certainly not available at their own shop.
Regular shoppers of any traditional market usually make their daily visit to exactly the same stalls, developing near friendships with their fellow customers.
In Khmer, a frequent customer is called a “ moy ” (មូយ). Plus ‘ moys ’ sometimes request their retailers to pay later and sellers often happily accept as they know their moys will return back to their stores. This unspoken, special trust, between your vendors and the customers is quite typical inside these markets.
An additional distinct form of social exchange that can just be found in conventional markets is bargaining.
Despite bargaining becoming an act of self-benefit, buyers and retailers have longer relationships through bargaining as compared to a typical purchase and paying at a countertop in a supermarket.
Such provides and social exchanges between sellers plus customers are not typically found in other business settings. Modern buying centres have wide doorways and huge floor plans, each store is partitioned with a glass housing, making it hard to get close, meaningful social interaction to be shaped.
Another important factor is the value within a traditional market, which helps to reduce the social gap between people through different income brackets. A monthly rental fee of a stall in Central Market ranges between $300 -$600 depending on the place and the size of the stall.
The price may be as low as around $140 for a lesser known marketplace. At AEON mall in Sen Sok, on the other hand, a rent for a ground-floor unit of 112 square metres can cost up to $2, 500 a month.
From a customer’s viewpoint, the price gap at a conventional local market with a shopping mall is also significant. For instance, a 350ml can of Coke sells pertaining to 1 dollar at AEON mall, as the exact same drink are available for about 30 cents or even less at traditional markets.
These low-costs establish a room for communities to satisfy regardless of their socio-economic status. In contrast, the communities with low income are unlikely to be frequent visitors of the bigger higher-priced department stores.
This is partly due to the perceptions associated with modern departmental stores, which make these areas less approachable, specifically for people from reduced socioeconomic status. These types of glitzy shopping centres are usually filled with high-end retail businesses and luxurious international brand names whose stores are made to exude sophistication, by having an intent to appeal to a certain target group of clients.
These modern constructions embed social norms that force people to feel that they should appear a certain way to enter the malls.
In this sense, traditional markets present a good equitable environment without protruding sense of intimidation or discrimantion due to classes or age groups, making it the safe space which is socially accessible to all members of society.
The future of traditional markets
As Cambodian society turns additional towards western forms of commerce, it’s necessary to consider whether and exactly how these traditional markets might retain their particular place in our lives.
In moving forward, there are two possible courses of action. The first is to address some of the issues within traditional markets that could enhance the shopping encounter and make these types of spaces more convenient, a lot more inclusive, and safer, without losing on the more charming facets of these markets.
One particular study proposed a redesign and remodelling of one traditional market in the city of Bandung in Indonesia. The redesign cleaned the muddy floors, the strong smell from food and wet sections of the market, as well improving natural light and ventilation. The study proposed installation of a water supply network to flush waste drinking water from stores, and walls with lattice facades inviting organic ventilation and lighting.
Traditional markets in Phnom Penh furthermore encounter similar problems and could draw from these solutions to improve the basic safety and comfort of our own traditional markets. Any kind of renovations or redesigns should also include availability features so that Cambodians with disabilities can also navigate these areas easily.
The second course of action will be to make use of the best of what traditional markets have to offer within the new markets and shopping malls.
Future store development should explore ways to conserve the identity and social values embedded inside these traditional markets. In Bangkok’s biggest and finest purchasing centre, ICONSIAM, among the mall’s prominent highlights is SookSiam, a huge zone in the center of the modern structure. The space aims to preserve the particular country’s traditions of floating markets, including stores and stalls reflecting the traditional settings of old Thailänder markets.
But preservation does not look this extravagant and it does not require millions of dollars. Preserving traditional marketplaces can come in different forms. Fundamentally, any upcoming projects that try to modernise and easily simplify shopping must you should think about the protection of the underlying social and communal fabric inlayed in markets. Even as retail modernises, it’s a part of life that can and should connect users of our society together.