Days of my parents: Working in Wet Market Singapore

I'm not sure if anyone would be interested in this but I wish to share a lil bits of a life of a stall owner in a wet market. Reason being? I wanna share the work life of my parents. Currently, my parents own 2 stalls in a rather popular wet market. Frankly speaking, I used to be ashamed of my parents occupation when my classmates would to ask me when I was really young (primary school, I believe) because I had a perception that they would have a perception that wet market is dirty or are only run by crude people. I'm glad my mindset changed. Why was I ashamed then? My parents are making hard earn money. There's nothing to be shameful about.

Anyway, I'm sure not many would know this. My dad actually had to leave home at 11pm everyday (except for Monday) to head off to Pasir Panjang wholesale centre to purchase the veggies. He would then picked my mum up at around 115am and they would head off to the market to set their stalls up.

Once, they reaches the market, my parents would unload all the goods from the truck. I tagged along a few months back as they could not manage to hire an additional hand to help them up but I'm glad they hired someone hardworking to help them out now.

My mum on the other hand would open the stalls. You could see how empty the market is. 

And here's my job if I was to tag along with them at 1am

To open all these white styrofoam boxes and red bags and packed them

If you ever go to the wet market, don't assume that all these veggies are pre-packed from the wholesale centre. Its actually the effort of the stall owner to pack them. (2 advantages for doing so:  1. Able to tell the customers how much does each pack cost  2. Able to tell the customer the weight of each veggies) As a whole, all these are done to save time. For each box of veggies, I believe i spent about 15 minutes packing them. Its not an easy job too! I have to place them neatly in the bag, pick out any yellow, rotten veggies and staple them.

My parents working hard on the other hand to sort and tie the veggies in rubber band. What else do they do then? Cutting, giving culinary advice, recommending, foster good customer relationship, setting aside/keeping veggies for the regular etc. O, my dad also does delivery of veggies for some shops too. Which means they also have to take orders from the clients a day before and packed them on the day itself and deliver them to their respective shops.

Snapshots of how the stalls look like when its almost set up:

Its a long hour work as a stall owner of a wet market. My parents had to work all the way to 12+pm (weekdays) or 1+pm (weekends). Thats more than 12 hours of work! You could say its because my parents are hardworking as they choose to pack those veggies which some may think its unnecessary. But you really got to save time when you starts your business. Sometimes, my parents don't even have the time to eat or go to the loo! Their hands, mouth and brain never stops working. I would say my parents are a pro in mental sums. 

Anyway, just some additional insight of the life in the wet market. Don't despise some of the store owners. There are a few are pretty well to do. They stay in landed property. I have seen a few in the market my parents are working side to side with. Disclaimer: My family are not well-to-do. We are just average. Those well-to-do one would means they work longer hours, sell a wider varieties of stuffs etc. 

If you want to get cheaper goods, get them to reserve/keep the best goods for you, its always nice to foster a good relationship with them. Here are a few to do, which I notices:

~ Be a regular of a stall of a particular good, this would makes them remember you and thus would allow them to make an effort to keep you buying goods from them by giving you a discount.

~ If you are an extrovert and like to mingle with people, you could talk to them too e.g about your personal life, etc. But relatable of course.

As I do make an attempt to try to head down to help out, here are a few not to do (sometimes, it really pissed me off):

 ~ Ask for discount when you merely purchase a few bucks item! 

~ Try to gather their attention (cut queue) among the crowds. There's are actually queues too. Wait for your turn.

~ Be very picky! Please, there are hardly a few things in the world are perfect! It really gets to my nerve when I show you everything I had and you still picking out minor flaws. In some cases, there aren't even flaws. 

~ Tell lies and said the other stall sell me cheaper, could you sell me at this price too? Hey, if they really sell cheaper goods than us, you could get it from them isn't that so? 

~ Be rude! 

~ Steal. Yes, it happens every weekends. I don't get it? Why must one steal veggies in our case?

Its really is tough for my parents. They have to work every single days and their only rest days are Chinese New Year. For merely 3 days! Its been many years since my dad even travel oversea. Its just not possible. Even though, they are the boss, they also have to account to their clients! Just a few years more before my parents would retire. I really hope they would retire soon, to work in a wet market really isn't that easy. But my mum are enjoying it. She said she loves her job! Weird urh?