Street markets

Mostly fresh food: vegetables, fish that's still flapping, tofu that's still warm, plus cheap everyday stuff like plastic sandals and phone cases. In my area in Da Nang there's also a night market where people go more for grilled skewers than for actual shopping. Personally, I'm torn. For clothes I'd pick a mall, simply because of the air conditioning and the fixed prices; I'm terrible at haggling and always end up paying more than I offered. But for food, the street market wins hands down. It's fresher, and the sellers throw in a handful of spring onions for free. When I was little, I went to the market with my grandmother almost every morning. My job was to carry the basket, and my reward was a bag of sugarcane juice, so I never complained. She knew every stallholder by name and could tell a good mango just by sniffing it. I don't think markets will vanish, at least not here. Supermarkets are spreading fast, but as long as Vietnamese people insist on buying their meat the same morning they cook it, the market will survive.