New B89 Market

On May Day this year, to the delight of many aunties and uncles, the new B89 market at PR opened.



Many people were excited about the new place. I can understand how eager the aunties like M, who had had to go marketing at other not-so-nearby markets during the period of closure (I think it was 9 months or so). See my pre-renovation photos.

I checked it out, too. But I was a little disappointed.

They had the upper floor removed. So I had expected the place to look brighter and be more airy. But alas, this was not to be. The place looks dark and very confined - it has a very 'boxed-in' feel about it.



Look at the heavy reliance on ceiling fans and lights. Even on a bright sunny morning, the inner portion of the market needs its lights to remain switched on! Why? Because the smart architects had ordered the airwell covered up with opaque material!!! So much so for improvement! From what I can see, this is really 2 steps backwards! How much utility bills do you think the stallholders will now have to fork out? And eventually passed on to customers?

The fans do not help cool the place. Years ago, when I used to wait for M as she went about choosing the fish and selecting the vegetables etc, it was always nice to feel the occasional breeze brush us by. It didn't happen very often but when the breeze did come, it felt good. But now, it's not possible for any breeze to come in anymore. The place is simply too 'boxed up'.

Sure, the stalls are much more organised now. They look neater, cleaner and very 'regular' aka very 'standard'. From what I can see, the size of each stall is smaller than the size of my work station in the office, so it's no wonder that most stallholders occupy at least 2 stalls. Some bigger-scale vegetable-sellers even had 3 or more.



With the removal of the upper floor, the stalls selling the wide array of things were compacted. I think this is good because now, the aunties and uncles no longer need to climb up the stairs to go get their coffee powder or fruits or eggs or pork or curry mix or even shorts, t-shirts and slippers.

All the stalls are now located on the ground floor. So we can now stroll from the butcher's to the fishmonger's to the vegetable-seller's to the egg-seller's to the sundry-goods-seller's to the clothes-sellers etc in a smooth, swift one-floor-only action. Given that the majority of the regular market-goers are now silver-haired, I think the compaction will be really helpful.

The only other improvement that I can see of the market is its toilets. What a contrast they are now to their predecessors. In the old market, the toilets were but 2 almost-unseen and always-avoided 'storeroom-like' cubicles on the obscure end of the upper floor. They also stank.

Now, the toilets are located right beside the bin centre. They look bright and airy and even had a resort feel about it because its back walls are landscaped with palms and other ferns! Now there's no excuse to hold the bladder until we get home.



Although some people might find the new signs overhead helpful, I think they are more useless than useful. Who (but for my taking the photographs) would look up to see these and try to decipher them? Given the size of the market, are they really going to be helpful at all? I think at most, they should have indicated the location of the toilets.



The cooked food portion of the market remains largely unchanged. Stalls look smaller but still in the 2 neat rows they had always been in. Some stalls have retained more or less the same position as they had been at, but others have changed place. So it took me a while to orientate myself so I can zoom in on my favourite nonya-kueh stall manned by a friendly uncle who doesn't seem to have aged even a bit since the first time I bought kuehs from him almost 3 decades ago!



The laksa stall and porridge stall at the 2 ends of the row facing the flats remain as iconic as the bread stall and the pancake (面煎糕) at the other 2 ends of the other row, are.

It's not easy to take photographs at the market because people tend to stare with an obvious 'Why is she taking my photograph?' kind of doubtful look. And glared. At some parts, I fear that some sensitive people might even scold me (for example, the front of the toilets), so I didn't take these.

So photos here may not be completely representative but got no choice. Make do.

And the last one here is taken from the balcony. I think it is not bad - I mean, how the market looks 'back to life', once again, each morning now.