The book Eat this has ten suggestions for food hotspots which offer a good opportunity to create public domain. Most of them still give the user a passive role regarding to food (only buying and eating). There is one exception which also is the the most interesting to me.
The density of markets in the Netherlands is low compared to that in other countries. In the big four cities (Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht) one can probably find one or more markets each day. However people in smaller cities – which we have a lot in the Netherlands – should be lucky to find a market even more than ones a week. This in contrast to cities in southern European countries like Italy and Spain where each little villages at least has a market ones a week and bigger cities have them each day.
For people who have a job from nine to five opening hours of the Dutch markets are very inconvenient. Therefore they might prefer the all day opening hours of a supermarket - with a small but steady assortment - over the cheap products of a market.
This is a missed opportunity since the market not only offers cheap products but also has a broader range to choose from. Prices are mostly low since merchants sell products from the season and usually their rents of space and transports costs are lower than the supermarket (check also an earlier post on markets).
Besides offering cheap products the market could bring the consumer directly in contact with the producer explaining about his products, where they come from and how they are best kept and prepared.
To make people stay longer at the market one could also decide to offer other services related to food. As many merchants already do, they not only sell fresh products. Some of them also prepare food like fried fish, grilled chicken, etc. But this still leaves the client in a very passive role.
Fast shoppers should be seduced to stay longer. Products sold on markets could also be prepared by a cook or even by the client himself. The cook explains what he did, bringing his enthusiasm for food and cooking to the consumers thereby stimulating them to enjoy the whole process of buying, preparing and eating healthy food. Different consumers come together to enjoy and discuss the meal they just ate.
To give an impulse to the markets in de Netherlands it is necessary to create markets which are organized on a more regular basis with longer opening hours. Climate wise the Dutch also have to consider protecting their clients against rain, wind or cold winter days. Rotterdam and The Hague are already discussing these possibilities.
A market might have all the ingredients to create public domain. I guess in general it is important to find a way in which people who usually not choose for healthy food are tempted to change their behavior in the nearby future. They have to ignore the unhealthy snack they usually buy on the way home or in the supermarket. We need to offer them a place – preferably on an easy accessible location which they would pass daily – where they can buy, prepare and enjoy the food they just bought. Public domain may be created when people from different cultures, countries, with a different income and education level, all come there. We need to consider to create a public domain where not only stomach but also brains are filled up with new energy!
