BUYERS’ MARKET From bananas to batata, bargains abound at Haymarket

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BUYERS’ MARKET
From bananas to batata, bargains abound at Haymarket
The Boston Globe, Oct. 19, 2000

You may think of Haymarket as a place to save dollars, but it's your senses that cinch the deal.

The people you see, the scents you smell, the tastes you anticipate, the languages you hear, the excitement you feel. And when you leave, you'll be richer not only in your purse, but because you've partaken of tradition and escaped from the shrink-wrapped world.

Try getting that at the supermarket.

Of course, the very facets that make up the experience are what make it not for everyone. You can expect a bit of jostling in the crowd. Your nose will leave no doubt when you're passing by the fish stands. And it shouldn't come as a surprise if you hear cross words from a vendor, directed at someone else if not at you.

But with a little local knowledge, you can minimize the drawbacks and maximize the benefits.

Haymarket Q&A
When is it open? Haymarket operates, loosely speaking, from dawn to dusk on Fridays and Saturdays, every week of the year. It is located on Blackstone, North, and Hanover streets, steps from Faneuil Hall Marketplace, City Hall Plaza, and the North End.

Who shops there? It's hard to generalize about such a varied clientele, but you can count on:

- Lots of recent immigrants, speaking a babel of tongues. Many appear right at home, accustomed to outdoor markets from their native lands. For them, there's nothing romantic about shopping at Haymarket; it's a matter of economic necessity.

- A fair number of seniors, many of them trying to negotiate the narrow pathways with their wire shopping carts. As with the immigrants, they're scouring for bargains.

- Tourists. Haymarket is unquestionably on out-of-towners' itineraries, and should be. You can often pick out the visitors: They're dressed too spiffily, they're stationary, and instead of buying, they're videotaping.

- Small restaurateurs, stocking their kitchens for the weekend.

- A smattering of suits, especially on Friday, from the downtown business set.

Who shouldn't shop there? If you put a premium on convenience, Haymarket is not for you. Nor is it if you don't like crowds, off- color language, less-than-diplomatic (at times) customers and sellers.

Don't vendors have a reputation for being gruff? It's true that you might encounter that, particularly from one regular near the North Street end of the market. The reputation is a sore spot for many of the vendors.

"A lot of times we get a bad rap," says Willie Carbone, 42, who's been working his own stand for 20 years. "With the amount of people we have, and the number of nationalities we have . . . I mean, how often do you hear on the news, "riot on Blackstone Street' "?

Adds his brother, Chris, 31: "We're like a family. About 120 vendors come down here. In a family that big, you're going to have, say, an aunt or an uncle who's a jerk."

Joe Bottari, a Haymarket vendor of 25 years, says that customers are treated as they treat the sellers. His advice: "Be polite, and have a positive attitude. Be normal."

He concedes, though, that some buyers test his patience. "If they're a little slow, I'll tell them to have their money ready."

When is the best time to go? In summer, it is more crowded in the morning; in winter, the afternoon. The produce is freshest - and the crowds usually the lightest - on Friday morning. "Also," says Chris Carbone, "the vendors haven't put in a 30-hour weekend, so the vendors are fresh, too."

Can you bargain? Yes, as Saturday wears on, but ask yourself: With the prices so low to begin with, why bother, except perhaps for the sport of it? Consider, too, that by waiting until Saturday afternoon, you're buying produce that's been outside for two days. Price and volume improve, but quality and selection decline.

By the end of Saturday, the market has the feel of anarchy. The sign says, "4 for $1." You say, "How about 5?" The vendor says, "How about 6? I want to go home." Each stall closes on its own schedule, so you could find yourself buying oranges from one vendor while people are digging through the pile of oranges discarded by the vendor next door. Some customers come armed with a knife, and pare away the spoiled spots on the spot.

OK, so what about quality? It varies, especially after produce has been out in the sun for two days, but remember: The market couldn't have lasted more than a century if quality were a problem. The goods come from the same place, the Chelsea Produce Market, that supplies restaurants and small grocers across the region. If a vendor hands you a bag, say, of rotten apples, you need only point it out and he'll make good. If you don't notice until you get home, though, the best you can do is chalk up the loss of a dollar or so, and not shop with that vendor again.

Is it worth the parking hassle? Surrounding streets can get pretty clogged and traffic enforcement is not always what it should be. "We have a limited number of officers in that area," says Daniel Hofmann, a deputy commissioner for the Boston Transportation Department, "but we do try to send a message. We make a point to go in there several times a day." I can attest that they do tow on occasion.

Metered parking is available on Union and Cambridge streets. An even better bet is the Parcel 7 garage right next door: A dollar will buy you two hours if you get your ticket stamped by a vendor; most of them will accommodate you cheerfully. (But be aware that if you go over the two-hour limit, you'll pay full price for the full time).

It's actually a pretty good dodge. If you want, say, to have a cappuccino in the North End, you can park cheaply and hassle-free just by picking up some strawberries and a stamp on your way back to the car.

What do the vendors do the rest of the week? Many vendors work in the Chelsea produce warehouses, according to Joseph Matara, president of the Haymarket Pushcarts Association since 1974. Joe Bottari is one of them: He delivers produce within the market to pick up some extra cash. "But getting the stand ready takes a lot of work. . . . Usually, I get up Friday mornings at 3, Saturday mornings at 4-4:30."

The Carbones say they're in Chelsea every day. "One day we might buy flowers, another day peaches, plums, and nectarines," Chris Carbone says. "We're retail two days a week, but we're purchasing every day." They maintain a warehouse preparing for the weekend. "We used to have a retail store, but we like this better."

SIDEBAR 1: Six shopping strategies

1. Go with a friend. This works in two ways, first as a division of labor. One of you can handle the buying, the other can carry the bags. Second, the volume of what you buy - 10 plums for a dollar on a recent Saturday, for example - can be overwhelming, especially if you're single. With a partner, you can divvy up at the end.

2. Bring lots of dollar bills. This is entirely a cash business, and like all grocers, the vendors depend on volume, so they want you in and out. Most items are sold in dollar units; a $20 bill may be greeted by a pause, a sigh, or even a scowl. Think of it as part of the charm, in a Durgin-Park kind of way.

3. Don't bring a shopping cart unless you just can't do without it. The aisles are narrow in spots, particularly where a cheese shop puts out a table during market hours about half way down Blackstone Street.

4. Bring a shopping list, but be prepared to find the unexpected. Joe Bottari, a Haymarket vendor of 25 years, identifies the items you can expect to find just about every week: Tomatoes, potatoes, onions, limes, bananas, apples, and grapes, among others. Occasionally, though, you will also encounter more exotic fare: baby carrots, baby eggplant, peeled garlic, or 3-pound bags of mesclun mix for $2.

5. "If you get something good, remember where you got it," Willie Carbone says, and his brother Chris chimes in: "Yeah, the good stuff or the bad stuff." John Reilly, a nephew of Matara's who has worked in the market, offers similar advice: Get to know the names of vendors who you come to trust, and tell them yours.

6. Ask before you handle the merchandise; doing otherwise can provoke ire (although somehow, quirkily, you can usually pick out your own bananas). Many vendors fill your order from boxes behind the counter. What's out front "is just the display," Bottari says. "We don't have the time to keep stocking things up." Cynical shoppers might see this as an excuse for a bait and switch: Put the good stuff on display, put substandard stuff in the bag. That could happen, but rarely does. Remember that even though they operate stalls, not stores, most of these guys have been in business for years, and they couldn't survive if they were cheats.

SIDEBAR 2: Why so cheap?

Produce originates in the field, of course (though Willie Carbone swears that "most people think it comes out of a machine"). It is trucked into Boston, most notably to the Chelsea Produce Market. Just about any shop below supermarket level who sells produce gets it there, and even the big chains shop there occasionally.

If Haymarket didn't exist, Chelsea's wholesalers would have to invent something like it, Chris Carbone said. "We're like the lifeboat for them. It's either us or dump it." That "clean-up" aspect explains why Haymarket's prices are so low. It also explains Haymarket's quirky selections. The middlemen also traffic in institutional and restaurant goods, and when they have an excess of those, it too goes to Haymarket.

"There's a saying," Chris Carbone says: "The produce starts in California and comes across the country. After Boston, there's only Boston Harbor." But, he hastens to add: The quality is still the same as for anyone who bought in Chelsea that morning. "They give it to us just like they give it to them."

SIDEBAR 3: The REAL deals

The most dedicated bargain hunters don't have to be satisfied with, say, eight oranges for a dollar. Practically all items for sale can be purchased by the case.

Vendor Joe Bottari says that tomatoes, potatoes, and onions are the most popular bulk items. As he explained it, he sold a case of tomatoes for $5 to two customers, with the condition that he throw in a couple of bags. Afterward, the buyers used the bags to split the contents of the box and went their separate ways.

Prices fluctuate, but here are some sample prices from the end of September:

carrots $10 for 50 lbs.

lettuce $20/case

plaintains $10/case

cherry tomatoes $7 for a flat (12 pints),

honeydews $10 for case of 5

corn $8 for 4-4 1/2 dozen

blueberries $10 for a flat

onions $8 for 50 lbs. (Spanish onions $4 for $50)

potatoes $6 for 50 lbs.

oranges $6 for 50 lbs.

SIDEBAR 4: Keeping it clean

Each of the 68 permitees is inspected at least twice a year, and a city inspector does at least a walk-through every week, according to John Dorsey, a spokesman for Boston Inspectional Services.

Dorsey and Tom Goodfellow, assistant commissioner, tell what authorities are looking for:

- Fish has to be kept at 38 degrees or below, and fishmongers are not allowed to do any cutting or cleaning of fish at their stalls. There is both fresh catch and previously frozen.

- Meat purveyors - they sell out of shops along Blackstone Street and are open daily - must keep their products at 41 degrees or below.

Failure to comply with these or with general sanitation results in suspensions that are in force until the violation is corrected; in practice, they last a day, sometimes a week, Goodfellow says. Since July 1, one meat seller and two fishmongers have been suspended. During the preceding 12 months, nine vendors were.

SIDEBAR 5: The market's hay day

There actually was a hay market in Boston, going back as far as 1739 near East Berkeley Street, according to the Bostonian Society library. By 1828 it had become a wood market and moved near its present site. Haymarket Square itself was laid out 11 years later.

As a produce market, it was originally open only on Saturdays, according to Joseph Matara, the president since 1974 of the Haymarket Pushcarts Association. It didn't take on its Friday-Saturday routine completely until the mid '50s.

Ultimately, the market itself is responsible for its remarkable longevity, but it has been helped from time to time by force of law.

Matara, a trim, youthful man of 70 whom everyone seems to know, says state law requires cities of a certain size to put aside space for open markets, and all three streets are protected as a market site by city ordinance.

Matara says the market was written into the environmental impact statements of the Big Dig to ensure that construction would not overwhelm it, and now, "they close up all the holes on Thursday afternoon." He estimates that as many as 100,000 people pass through the market each weekend.

SIDEBAR 6: Who's minding the store?

Pushcart association president Matara says that about 220 licenses exist for Haymarket, held by between 65 and 75 vendors, down from better than 500 in the '60s. According to John Dorsey, a spokesman for Boston Inspectional Services, 68 vendors hold medallion permits from his bureau: 56 for fruit and vegetables, 6 for meats, and 6 for fish.

The produce vendors are predominately white men of middle age, although the mix is changing. "It's a microcosm of today's immigration, I mean of the last 15 or 20 years," says Matara, whose Haymarket experience began in 1943. Back then, he says, half the vendors were Italian, and half were Jewish, "but very few kids want to be vendors. They're growing up to be professionals and moving on.

"We have a lot of Asians in there, and now you have the Muslims. It helps keep the market growing, by bringing in different groups of people shopping." The Arabic speakers dominate the meat shops and fish stands.

SIDEBAR 7: 20 items you don't see at the supermarket every day

Batata (a root), baby bananas, calabash (a gourd), maroon carrots, cherimoya (root of the custard apple family), Chinese okra, cilantro, Thai eggplant, bitter melon, fuzzy melon (not a melon, nor a form of math, but a vegetable), melanga coco (a root), name (a root, pronounced nah-mee), candy papaya, cactus pears, English sweet peas, cubamelle peppers, Italian empress plums, chayote squash, Thai chiles, yucca.

On a recent weekend, more than 150 different items of produce, almost 40 types of fish (most of it fresh, a few frozen), and uncounted meats were for sale.