Something unprecedented happened at the São Paulo Municipal Market, that trap for tourists known as Mercadão.
The market concessionaire company decided to punish ten traders who applied the “fruit coup”, something that has always occurred in the building designed by Ramos de Azevedo on the banks of the Tamanduateí.
Everyone who has visited Mercadão has been approached by vendors offering tastings of some type of fruit – once, they wanted to give me a date filled with strawberry, which they called “natural chocolate”.
Pure decoy. Once the victim is attracted, the traders work in groups to stun him and make him pay a few hundred reais for nothing more than ordinary fruit.
This rogue approach is the worst thing about Mercadão – in many ways a great program for shopping and entertainment, but turned into a freak show by the invasive behavior of the stallholders.
In the pandemic, disregarding any sanitary protocol, they arrived (when I went, I don’t know if it still persists) with the mask down, screaming in your face and logically spitting on the food offered.
It is something that occurs mainly in the fruit market sector, but it also contaminates some dry and wet emporiums. It’s not that there is a scam there, what there is is the insistence and eagerness to complete the purchase quickly, before the customer can do the math and reflect.
The harassment almost always takes place on Main Street, the widest sidewalk in the market. It also stains the reputation of excellent establishments in the Mercadão: fishmongers, butchers and cheese shops.
The attitude of fining the scammers, if it continues and inhibits wild behavior, can be a step towards transforming the Municipal Market into a civilized and nice place.
Other things are in progress, and we can only wait to see the result. There is Vila Santan, which will bring quality meat and poultry directly from western Paraná. There is a Peruvian cevicheria, which is already in operation and looks good (I need to try it).
The challenge for the concessionaires is to make Mercadão no longer a trap, a trap, a robbery, a trap for tourists.
And without falling into the bullshit of creating something ultra-elite, with little personality, like what the Pinheiros Market has become.
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