Busy 30 minutes at chợ Đồng Xuân

Our Bia Hơi group came to chợ Đồng Xuân in an afternoon, around 2 PM. It was the early afternoon but the market was so busy around. It was full of people walking, talking, bargaining and bringing in and out large package tighted with rope or wire. It was quite hard to walk through narrow roads seperating rows of shop which were crowded with all kinds of product. The main hall, of course, was the largest and most comfortable area to sit down and do my assignment.

After going around the market to see how the business was going on, I decided to sit at the main hall then chose a woman to observe.

When I started, a person was standing there already, asking that woman about something, which I thought may be the price. After the person left without buying anything, the seller sat down and talked with 2 other sellers in neighboring shops while sharing the dried fruit (ô mai) with them. A fruit vendor selling guava passed by, and was called back by her. She and those two people picked the guavas they wanted into a nylon bag and gave them back to the fruit seller to weight it. Giving a big smile to her friends, the woman pay money for the guava and the fruit seller went away.

After about 1 minute, when that woman was tying her hair, she called for a seller to buy some seasons. I saw that seller had ginger, garlic, lemon and some other seasons, but I’m not sure what that woman bought. Looking satisfy with the stuff bought, she sat still in front of her kiosk and looked around when her neighbor came back to their places.

During the next maybe 10 minutes, she talked with someone through her mobile. She didn’t say much, just listened and added some short sentences to respond. Suddently, a foreigner guest came to the kiosk and picked a product up to have a look. The guest stood in front of her but she even didn’t take a look back at that guest and kept continuing her call.

Few minutes after that foreigner had left; other two women came to the kiosk: one brought a big package, following another one. Putting that package on the floor, that woman received money from the other and left, while the second person sat on a chair next to the shop seller and waited for her to end her phone call. The shop seller kept looking when having that phonecall, in about 10 minutes. After that, she ended it up and talked to the woman sitting next to her. Firstly, the shop seller asked the woman “400?” then kept talking with her in 5 minutes until that women stood up, said goodbye and left.

Right at that time, there was another woman came to the kiosk. Seeing that woman, the seller gave her 2 hats, with the same style but different colors. Checking the hats, these two was saying something to each other when the just-came-woman opened a notebook and wrote on it. That woman left after 2 minutes, bringing with her a big package.

It was also the time I finished my observation.