Saturday, June 8, 2013

New Market In The Hood

This is my 100 POST.... and I am still writing.. WOW... Thank you everyone for reading it, I have had over 5000 people in 10 countries reading this.  It is great therapy for me and I hope that it makes you laugh a little (I know it does make me laugh!!).  Now my story..

New Market in the Hood


A new (and only) mini mall sprung up (actually they been working on it for 2 years!) in  Zaqatala with a full service market in the basement. The name GROSS which for us Americans is not an particularly an appropriate name but I believe they were using it as a play on words meaning "Grocery" store.  This is a chain, they have one in Ganja, one in Baku and now in Zaqatala.  I really felt I was cheating on my favorite store Zift the first time  I went in and I really just going in to browse and not buy anything.  But to my surprise the prices were much lower than my favorite market.  So now I am a regular.  They even have cat and dog food!!  With my PC living allowance I have to budget, the bazaar is not cheaper and at times they give you old, bad fruits and vegetables because they pick it for you.  At Gross, I pick my own and the prices are cheaper. And the veggies and fruits are fresher, I even found lettuce!! I found garlic vinegar, mushrooms and olives, it is almost like being at home!!  This is my new favorite market, but don't tell anyone!  I still go into Zifts for a few things like eggs from the local farmer but most of my shopping is at the new market now.  Next door on the street level is an Italian purse shop, way out of my price range and probably for most residents in Zaqatala, so it will be interesting if it stays.  The 2nd and 3rd floors are vacant and it will also be very interesting who will be occupying those floors and what kind of shops will they will have.  The rent for these shops compared to the Bazaar is way out of most vendors budget. The only hope I see is for vendors from Baku to come and open shops like Gross.  But then who can afford them here?  The tourist trade has dropped considerably because of the earthquakes last year. And they are doing major repairs, replacing gas and sewer lines, chopping down 300 year old trees and the roads are a mess. They will tear up the roads, do repairs, put dirt over it and come back a week later and tear them up again.  They are just now paving a few streets, but the roads are so dirty and dusty my apartment and me are dirty all the time yuck!!! I am told that all he streets will be paved by August, we will see as they say Inshallah (God willing)!! Here are a few more pictures of my new favorite market!!!

Front of Mall Gross on your left

Inside the store, Look how clean

Another view


Life Challenge: Success is often the result of taking a misstep in the right direction...  Al Bernstein

1 comment:

  1. hi,
    i want to correct one thing on your post. this is about the places of these markets. There is not any at Ganca. Mingechevir, Baku, and Zaqatala..

    ReplyDelete