I DON’T know when I started enjoying going to the wet market. As a child, tagging along with my lola, or my Mama, I remember it as a disgusting smelly experience. But I did somehow enjoy hearing my elders trade chitchat back and forth with their favorite market vendors or suki. These were bonds forged over the years with other women (or men, in the case of butchers), and in a few cases, my elders got to know these market vendors even on a personal level, making inquiries about the latter’s children, or their spouses, like they were just our next-door neighbors or relatives.
As I got older, I learned to savor the sights, sounds and smells of the wet market. A visit to the palengke became a thrilling adventure for me, as I combed stalls trying to find the freshest seafood at the best prices. I enjoyed the psk-psking sound of clams shooting out water from the basin they were sitting in, learned to tell the difference between fresh or stale fish, and observed how the alimango (mud crabs) would struggle to claw their way out of the heavy black nets they were trapped in.
Aside from marveling at the array of seafood, meats, fruits and vegetables, I took pleasure in the interaction with the different vendors, some of whom have become my suki, haggling over the prices of my intended purchases, and trading opinions on the hottest issues of the day.
Then I found out honestbee had Farmers Market as a partner merchant. And I wondered, would going to the palengke via an app be as enjoyable an experience as buying the produce myself?
I first heard about honestbee from a colleague as we were discussing online marketing and retailing, and he said his wife was quite satisfied buying the family groceries through the app. As both of them work, honestbee, he said, provided them the convenience of ordering needed items for their home from the grocery store (e.g., its first partner was Robinsons Supermarket, but now it also has S&R, Shopwise and Marketplace at Rustan’s on its list).
I’ve been using the app for close to three months. I first tried honestbee to order food from certain favorite restaurants when I’m too lazy to cook. Except for some minor hiccups like a restaurant bailing out on my order, the experience has been smoothsailing overall. It’s also a perfect way of discovering small new restaurants in my general vicinity, without me having to travel there by cab or Grab.
I recently got the chance to observe honestbee and how its “shopper bees” work at Farmers Market. Aling Ruby Naval, 52, one of the 10 shopper bees assigned to Farmers, took me around as I delighted in the variety of produce offered. (Farmers Market may not have the cheapest prices, but it is one of the cleanest palengkes, and has the widest assortment of wet and dry goods. Even foreign Michelin-starred chefs like Elena Arzak have been enthralled with the various products on sale at Farmers.)
Aling Ruby says there are only a handful of market vendors tapped by honestbee to provide the best quality of meats, seafood and other goods for its discriminating clients. Also, these chosen vendors are able to generate the official receipts honestbee needs for its own company tax reportorial requirements, unlike the handwritten type we normally accept from our own suki.
Aling Ruby also goes on to explain that “if the desired item is no longer available from the accredited vendor, we are allowed to shop from the non-accredited ones.” In such cases, she only has to photograph the handwritten receipt issued by the vendor and send it to the home office. (On a personal note, Aling Ruby, a mother of two, says she become a shopper bee after her husband became employed as a rider, delivering meals, groceries and other treats for honestbee clients. She makes as many as 15 trips in a day, purchasing the orders of their clients, which means the wet market has become quite a popular partner-merchant for the app.)
And so last week, I tappity-tapped on my mobile phone and ordered some alimango, suahe, kitang, romaine lettuce, pork belly and beef sirloin. This was serious business, as I weighed the pros and cons of the prices (e.g., bakla crabs were P900 a kilo), and chose how many kilos I should be ordering for some items (like 2 kilos for “Duco” lanzones—a decision I would later regret). I tapped out specific instructions for the shopper bee regarding the size of the suahe and to taste the lanzones first.
I got to decide what time the goods would be delivered (9 to 11 am), and how I would pay for the items (gift voucher and cash). I received the products the next day in a generally satisfactory condition. I was excited that the crabs and shrimps were still alive and thrashing about in the separate plastic bags they were wrapped in. The crabs kept trying to escape the steamer as I prepared them for their glorious demise. And the beef sirloin was just perfectly sliced thinly for my tapa. (This kind of butchering is next to impossible in supermarkets.)
On the other hand, the lanzones was not sweet at all, though I left specific instructions to the shopper bee to taste them first before buying. Also, I specified a certain size for the live suahe but this, too, wasn’t followed; I’m guessing because I left it up to the shopper bee to make a suggestion about alternatives.
For sure, buying from Farmers via honestbee has its clear upsides. There is the convenience of not having to dress up (or down) to leave your home, along with not driving all the way to Cubao and trying to find an appropriate parking for one’s vehicle. For those without their personal cars, they either hail a cab or get a Grab—both of which are no longer pleasant modes of transport.
The only downside is letting go over the control of the purchase. Shopper bees don’t possess the fuzzy logic that many of us do, such as keeping purchases under a certain amount or weight so as not to go over one’s budget, or not buying a certain fruit because it’s not sweet. For older market habitués like myself, this can be make or break one’s relationship with the app. For the younger set, especially the millennials, I don’t see this as an issue at all since they’ve been used to handing their power of selection to the apps they use. They order almost everything they need online these days; you name it, food, clothes, shoes, appliances…so why not live seafood?
I was surprised that I wasn’t bothered at all with the absence of the usual chitchat with one’s suki. However, I wish honestbee would be able to accredit more partner-stalls to give us the best prices and product selections.
(Tip: The company has accredited wet markets in other cities, so it’s best to check your app for the nearest one to your set address.)
But I’m certainly going to give it another try, and next time, will be more super-specific in my instructions, and actually suggest the substitute products myself. Overall, it was an excellent experience going to the palengke via an app.
Image credits: Stella Arnaldo