Market Building – a name that conjures up the images of visually sumptuous foods, haggling shoppers, shouting vendors and colorful crowd. It’s the mother of all shopping zones in the city. There’s something magical about this space that draws the crowd from across the city. The smell of gupchup, chat and dahibara is pervasive around here and the impulse to purchase things is virtually unconquerable. Exaggerations be damned, it is city’s fitting reply to Delhi’s Sarojini Market. In short, Market Building is like a therapy to shopaholic denizens that throng the shopping zone round the week, come hell or high water.
To explain or even fully appreciate the mysticism behind such insane popularity of this shopping zone calls for numerous visits. If you’ve never been to Market Building, you don’t either belong to the city or are simply an NRO (Non-resident Odia).
Here’s why we think Market Building should be at the top of your list when you come visit Bhubaneswar.
Desilicious Foods
To be honest, we don’t have the right word to explain or do full justice to the fast foods available at Market Building. Thus we chose to coin one – Desilicious (Desi meets Delicious). You must have seen the crowd drooling over the mere mention of Dahibara, Chat, Gupchup and other fast foods of their ilk. Rest assured, Market Building has some of the best vendors of those things and you’re going to have whale of a time gorging on the most authentic fast foods in Bhubaneswar.
Best Bargains
Billed as a mecca of bargain shopping, Market Building is your one-stop shopping destination for low-cost items. Here’s the drill: you enter the shopping scene, hounded by the street vendors as you wade through the maddening crowd. There’s simply no price tag, no bar code on the products. You’re in the world of the street-smart vendors dictating the price on the fly. You ask them the price of a product that looks pretty darn much like the one you’ve seen somewhere else in the swanky shopping complex, and costs 300 bucks. They would say it costs 600 bucks. And, then the haggling beings until either one of you gives up. According to many frequent visitors to Market Building, one should just not settle for less than the third of the price quoted by the vendors. In case of the example above, the best deal would come somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 bucks. However, it’s easier said than bargained. And, if you’re not familiar with the bargains, have an experienced friend accompany you or risk being ripped off by the crafty vendors.
Colorful Crowd
Apart from being a bargain bazar, with its colorful crowd, Market Building is a great place to walk around and have fun with friends. Unlike a typical shopping mall in the city, you don’t have to worry about your look here and you can just be yourself doing your stuff without a care. It’s the place for people of real Bhubaneswar who shop till they drop and haggle their way to materialistic moksha. Even the emergence of BMC Keshari Mall in the same area hasn’t been able to cause any damage the market sentiment of Market Building shopping fanatics. Been there, done that, we can safely attribute the growing popularity of Market Building to its loyal fans and local ambience.
Har-Ek-Maal
Variety is the hallmark of Market Building and there is NOT a product you would not find useful and cheap at the same time. Whether you’re looking for garments for regular use or wedding apparel for that one big night, you’re likely to find one at cost you’d never have imagined before. From fancy shoes to carry bags, ethnic wear to undergarment, there’s just no limit to what you can find at half of the prices of the same stuff sold elsewhere in the city. No wonder why Market Building is considered a go-to shopping destination for all kinds of household purchases required round the year.
Aam Admi Shopping
Let’s face it – just because you’ve seen a few pricey cars rolling around the city roads don’t mean that the average city dweller can now afford to shop at upscale shopping complexes in Bhubaneswar. In the face of city’s gravity-defying cost of living, Market Building continues to be a life-saver for the common man. For as little as 500 bucks, one can buy items which would cost not less than 2000 bucks in any decent shopping malls in the city. Thus, Market Building has remained the main source of livelihood for many vendors, boosting city’s economy significantly.
Shopping or not, Market Building is a must-visit destination for any tourist yearning to catch the real vibes of the city.
What Do You Think?