For many young Singaporeans, our first port of call for groceries is the supermarket or even an online delivery service like RedMart. However, for the true-blue Singaporean, there is no better place for fresh produce, meat and fish than the wet market. Every bargain-hunting Singaporean aunty will have her favourite wet market and make her rounds to haggle and banter with her favourite vendors.
Increasingly, new HDB towns are designed around supermarkets instead of a wet market. For example, old towns like Toa Payoh are designed around multiple smaller town centres with a wet market and food centre. In contrast, Punggol, a new town, has Waterway Point as its central point, which naturally also has a supermarket, Fairprice Finest, as an anchor tenant.
While convenient, we may also lose some of the joy of grocery shopping. As a child, I used to follow my mum to the local wet market and be totally absorbed into the bustling scene. The wet puddles and smell of the fish and meat section would induce the “ewww”s from me, while I would tug my mum towards the fruit sellers for my favourite fruit of the day.