“Please come to me and purchase,†a hawker at Haymarket Saturday afternoon seems to be saying. With out-stretched arms, he welcomes all to great bargains for avocados, grapes, oranges and pears. That’s the way it is week to week at Haymarket for all our lives and then some.
It does not matter which neighborhood in this city you call home, Haymarket beckons if you are price conscious and want quality. North Enders, Beacon Hill residents, Back Bay folks and residents of this city from just about every neighborhood descended on Haymarket all day Saturday.
Taking advantage of the unusual warmth we’ve been blessed with so far this winter, thousands came out as usual to bargain for, to search, to touch, to buy produce, fish, meat and the full line of perishable eatables offered up at Haymarket every weekend of the year.
The draw isn’t just about price and quality, either. It is about panache – and Haymarket has panache – big-time.
It is a fabulous week to week event which many of us have experienced with our parents or by ourselves or with our girlfriends, wives, children and entire families at different times throughout our lives.
For those of you who shop at mainline supermarkets or at specialty supermarkets where the prices can get pretty hefty, a close examination at the photographs accompanying this piece tells the story about what exactly is available at Haymarket and at what price.
This writer went home with three cantaloupes weighing more than three pounds for $2.00 Saturday afternoon.
Firm, sweet, succulent red grapes were $1.50 a pound – a fabulous price.
Three pounds of bananas, firm and needing another day or two to fully ripen was $3.00.
Oranges, tangerines – you name it – they were there in abundance at Haymarket Saturday afternoon.
Haymarket isn’t for everyone. Not everyone likes the pushing and shoving, the pulsating crush of humanity all there for bargains.
But when you come right down to it, on a gorgeous day in January, Haymarket resonates as it has always done as one of the best downtown venues this great city can offer.
Perhaps the best buy was a huge two pound bag of mixed lettuce and greens for $1.00.
Like Haymarket, that price was unbelievable.
But I didn’t buy the lettuce. It would have been enough for a huge bowl of salad everyday for ten days and by then, the lettuce would be going bad.
If you haven’t been in a while, get down to Haymarket. Take your kids or grandkids.
What a great way to spend a few hours in the afternoon in the middle of winter.
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