Sure, for things like milk, juice, cheese, toilet paper, household objects - the necessities - you need to go to a store, but otherwise the need really isn't there because of street peddlers and weekly bazaars. Sometimes, there are peddlers that come by who sell cleaning and the aforementioned necessary household objects, but of course, I can never find them when I really need them.
Can't miss this guy, but he remains elusive
If you need fruit, there are meyveci, fruit sellers, on nearly every corner. Sometimes they have a cart they push around, but a lot of the time, especially now during the watermelon season, many men just park their car or truck on the corner and sell melons out of the back.
If you need a quick snack, there are all kinds of peddlers about selling a variety of healthy snacks to sate your appetite: roasted corn-sellers, rice-sellers, roasted chestnut-sellers, simit-sellers (simitçi), stuffed mussel-sellers (dolmacı), pancake-sellers, sandwich-sellers, meatball-sellers (köfteci), and so on. That's another thing I like about this place - all of the "fast food" or quick snacks are fresh and healthy. Of course, you need to beware of low quality döner meat and always wash your fruit before consumption, but otherwise it beats going to Burger King and the likes.
But, as I was saying, the bazaars here are awesome - they make you never want to go into a store because of the fantastic vareity of items that can be found there and, of course, the low prices and the possibility to bargain. Where I live in Fındıkzade, there is a major bazaar every Friday. This bazaar is famous throughout the city because of its sheer size and availability to buy anything that you need.
Thuırsday Morning
Same place, Friday morning
By my estimate, the bazaar spans about eight square blocks of my neighborhood. The streets are closed and cleared of vehicles, and the vendors arrive early (for Turkey) in the morning to set up their booths and merchandise. By 9 am the place is a madhouse: vendors shouting "Buyrunbuyrunbuyrunbuyrun! Bir lira bilirabilirabilirabilirabilirabuyrun!" (Yes please one lira!!!) at the top of their lungs, people thronging the tables rooting through piles of clothes and fruit and other goods; the bargaining is fast and cash changes hands rapidly. The bazaar can be a a pain whenever I have to go out and make my way to the bus stop, because it is so crowded and it takes a long time to pass through.
But it really does have everything you need, from fruit to fish to cheese to olives to toiletries to silverware to plates to hair scrunchies to shoes to pots and pans to clothes to fake Converses to simit to tea to nail files to mirrors to flowers to plants to swimsuits to baby clothes to vegetables to nuts to spices to.....well, you get the idea. You can get an entire week's shopping done by only walking two blocks. There are even men who walk around with great big baskets on their backs who will carry your goods home for you. Everyone makes some money at the bazaar somehow.
The best thing about the bazaar are the smells and trash that get left behind. On days where I work all day, the bazaar is just getting started, but by the time I come home the streets are once again empty and the streetsweepers have begun the monumental task of cleaning up the day's garbage. As I walk home, it is easy to imagine the lively environment that was there earlier that day - here was the sock-seller, and there where the wilted lettuce is was a fruit seller. There is a broken tea glass, and a half eaten simit. Olive pits everywhere, and plastic wrappers. And clearly, the fish seller was on that corner with the street cats enjoying the foul scent of the long gone fish tables. What interests me most about the bazaar is not the bazaar itself but the aftermath of it - the discarded candy and broken plastic and soda cans. Most of all I wonder what is like to be a street sweeper - what kind of treasures have they accumulated after cleaning up the endless parade of Friday bazaars?
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