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Cambodge said...
Those photos are awesome! Love it! The reason we don't have that here (apart from hygiene rules) is called 'employment'. All the photos show self-employed people trading goods they've invested in so they present them to sell them. The sales are their income. Their incentive is to sell. They woke up well before the crack of dawn to get all that ready and beautifully presented. They're competing against all the others selling the same stuff and if they don't just want a race to the lowest cut-throat price then they try to differentiate by presenting a bit better than your neighbouring seller.

Now switch to Australia... The owner is far, far removed from the actual business activity. The people working derive their income from selling their time and not from the sales revenue so they have no incentive to sell...or get up early...or work on the presentation. And there's no competition!

I love the markets of developing countries...but there are times when I'm tired or just can't be bothered haggling that I just wish they'd stick a price label on the damned thing and be done with it! :)

You forgot to mention that after all that work, they make as much money all day as we would make in half an hour.
The fact is, you could have your fruit and vegies presented that way if you were prepared to pay $100 a kilo for everything. But everyone wants everything at the lowest price, so they go to the likes of Woolwurfs and Coals.
Most people don't even bother to go to the local weekend markets where you can get something a bit closer to what's in those pics.
In the end, we get what we are prepared to pay for, so what we have got is more of a reflection on us all.
I think for the most part, the bigger companies do a pretty good job.
If they didn't then someone who did something different would soon take over the market, and clearly they have not.

^^Economic reality spoils the party again.

Remember the good ol' days when you could buy a piece of furniture all made up ready to go, and someone might even come and carefully insert it in your lounge room.

Now it comes from some horrible warehouse in a cardboard flat-pack and you have to put the bloody thing together your self!

Oh yeah, and it's a quarter of the price.

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AUS1111 said...
^^Economic reality spoils the party again.

Remember the good ol' days when you could buy a piece of furniture all made up ready to go, and someone might even come and carefully insert it in your lounge room.

Now it comes from some horrible warehouse in a cardboard flat-pack and you have to put the bloody thing together your self!

Oh yeah, and it's a quarter of the price.

...and the poor can now have furniture too.

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AUS1111 said...
^^Economic reality spoils the party again.

Remember the good ol' days when you could buy a piece of furniture all made up ready to go, and someone might even come and carefully insert it in your lounge room.

Now it comes from some horrible warehouse in a cardboard flat-pack and you have to put the bloody thing together your self!

Oh yeah, and it's a quarter of the price.

No....you just chose to buy those products to save money.
You can still get "good ol'" quality made products these days, you just have to pay for it.

....and that very much applies to food.

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subasurf said...
....and that very much applies to food.

The taste of fruit and veg in Aus is subpar regardless how much you pay.
The stuff you get in woolies is plain simple unfit for human consumption... rock hard no smell over priced plant matter.

I regularly travel, and Aus quality is fallen through the floor... some claim it's due to poor soil, others bcos Wo/Co screw the farmers.

I usually shop in Harris Farm and their stuff isn't bad, but far from great... in season stuff from NSW can be good.
Overseas it's rare to be disappointed (excluding UK), over here it's rare to be happy with the fruit.

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FlySurfer said...

subasurf said...
....and that very much applies to food.

The taste of fruit and veg in Aus is subpar regardless how much you pay.
The stuff you get in woolies is plain simple unfit for human consumption... rock hard no smell over priced plant matter.

I regularly travel, and Aus quality is fallen through the floor... some claim it's due to poor soil, others bcos Wo/Co screw the farmers.

The problem is, the fruit in the supermarkets is picked when it's nowhere near ripe because then it can be transported without bruising.
If you can buy it when it's picked ripe you wouldn't recognise it as the same fruit.
Fruit like nectarines, apricots, peaches etc are incredibly delumptiously delicious picked ripe off a tree, but as you say, they are rock hard, no smell and everything tastes like un-ripe apples.

The sooper markets sometimes buy in tree ripened fruit in plastic trays and it's very much better, but off course it's so expensive that very few buy it and they end up having to throw it out because when it's picked ripe, it has a shelf life of a few days.
It's made even worse when all the old chooks give the stuff a big squeeze to see how ripe it is.
They squeeze half the tray and then buy one or two pieces.
Sometimes when I'm standing near them I say something like, "Oh I think you missed that one there. I don't see any bruises on it."
It's ok to pick it up and give it a bit if a sniff but when they go through half the tray digging their shrivelled up wrinkly fingers into it and then put it back, that's way past reasonable. The old crones.!

Meh, that's why we grown most of our own produce.

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subasurf said...



No....you just chose to buy those products to save money.
You can still get "good ol'" quality made products these days, you just have to pay for it.

....and that very much applies to food.

Whilst I crudely agree with your point subasurf, at a practical level, what you say is not reflected in reality. Yes, you can still get "good ol'" quality made products, but these items are, in the vast majority of times a luxury item, with all the bells and whistles. For instance, you cant readily purchase a solid framed lounge with good support and durable fabric. Instead if you want the solid frame, you are also cornered into the highest end padding, springs and fabrics/leather. In practical terms, the good serviceable lounge with a frame built to last is not available to anyone other than top end purchasers. Going back 20 or more years, you could buy the solid frame with less durable upholstery and get it updated at a later date whether by a professional or your talented family members. A similar story applies across the board in furniture, whitegoods, vehicles etc. Whitegoods are a good example, it is extremely difficult to get a product that will last, but that just runs the simple cycles. If you want a machine to last the test of time, you also must pay for the plethora of timers, alarms, cycles etc.

Food I feel falls very much into the same pool, if you do not want the mass produced products that have spent long periods of time in transport and coolrooms then you are in a pickle. Either you luckily live close to the source, or you are purchasing from high end specialty stores. Why is this, simply put, in this country our small local producers are out competed from every side; big retail chains, big farmers, high land costs etc. If like most of us, you live in or near a large city, the chances of a direct to public producer existing nearby is slim. I take my hat off to the businesses trying to fill this void of supply.

Right, unless you are lucky enough to have the resources (time, space, skills) to grow your own... I love my veggie and herb patch, but it will never support our family if we remain where we currently live.

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subasurf said...

AUS1111 said...
^^Economic reality spoils the party again.

Remember the good ol' days when you could buy a piece of furniture all made up ready to go, and someone might even come and carefully insert it in your lounge room.

Now it comes from some horrible warehouse in a cardboard flat-pack and you have to put the bloody thing together your self!

Oh yeah, and it's a quarter of the price.

No....you just chose to buy those products to save money.
You can still get "good ol'" quality made products these days, you just have to pay for it.

....and that very much applies to food.

Did you just say "no", and then proceed to agree with me?