The building is showing its age and the stores inside seem to be continuously turning over. Continuously turning over except for the Jianmart which I’ve visited for over 20 years.
When we first moved to the Chaowai neighborhood in 2005, Jianmart was the main local market. It was and still is a fairly large general purpose store selling groceries, dry goods, and household things. Yang and I even bought bicycles there back when we first moved here (they no longer sell bicycles). A large part of my hatred for watermelon was having to carry them from the store to our apartment that first summer.
In 2013, when I moved back to the apartment I would go with the kids for weekly food shopping. We mainly shopped for things I could not easily find at the local expat markets, such as chicken breasts or ground beef. The kids were not terribly impressed nor terribly excited to go to the market. Later, a Walmart opened closer to our apartment and we would go there instead. By the time we moved to another neighborhood in 2016, we had pretty much stopped going to Jianmart.
When we returned, yet again, in 2023 Jianmart was still there. However, we almost exclusively had all our groceries delivered, mostly from Sam’s Club which is far away. I went to Jianmart out of boredom one day and found it was the best place to buy my instant coffee and 3 in 1 soap. So every month or so, I make a pilgrimage. The people who shop at Jianmart tend to skew older and many still pay in cash which is otherwise very uncommon here.
This was no more evident than today. Instead of taking my morning walk, I went to the market to buy a small jar of instant coffee for this weekend’s trip. While checking for pumpkins, I was having some difficulty navigating the aisles because of all the slow moving shoppers. The line to weigh and price your produce was intimidating. It was not a young crowd. I am part of the crowd.
The checkout line was long and slow. An elderly couple was in front of me and they were working in tandem. The man unloaded the groceries, all fresh vegetables, while the woman positioned herself to load the bags. The man, like the previous three people in line, paid in cash. It was kind of sweet and kind of dark.
When I got home, I checked the name of Jianmart on the map but saw another market location in its place. It’s now Xingfu Rongyao. It will always be Jianmart to me.
PS: The photo is of the entrance and clearly shows the Xingfu Rongyao in Chinese which I spent years walking past not comprehending.