CommentaryPhnom Penh

A Markets Economy

I was living near the Capitol Guesthouse when I first came to Phnom Penh nearly five years ago. One day I went out about noon for a fruit shake and wandered around fruitlessly for about an hour. I”d remembered seeing many shake stands in the neighborhood, so was a bit baffled. I hadn”t realized that they are mostly a afternoon/night time activity here.

I was sure I had seen them in the daytime but was new to town and couldn’t remember where. Now, of course, I’d just hightail it over to Street 136 near Norodom where there are at least a dozen in a row and they’re open all day.

Cambodians have an extreme tendency to cluster their activities. If you see one shop selling sewing machines, you’re likely to see another dozen all in a row. See one storefront selling used boomboxes from Japan and there”ll be a block long line of them.

A single stand-alone shop will frequently beget a next door competitor. Not long ago a large new snooker parlor opened on Street 19, a short while later a new one of equal size opened across the street. Even shoeshine boys will make their rounds together though intuitively they”d be better off working separately.

You can be out on the highway, almost in the middle of nowhere, and see a shack selling watermelons, then another and another; sometimes for a kilometer, all offering melons. Cross the Japanese bridge and soon you’ll see dozens of stands selling baguettes. Do people drive out there just to buy bread? Is there really that much demand for baguettes on that highway?

There are advantages to that clustering; you always know where to get a baguette or fruit shake. However, it also means additional travel compared to having a variety of shops nearby.

It all seems to be indicative of a society which is intensely competitive, yet good natured. Like seeing ten motodops talking, joking, enjoying each others company until they spot a potential fare and begin to jostle and push for position. Even when one steals a fare from another, they seem to take it in stride.

In America competition is impersonal and long distance: If you don’t like what one supermarket has to offer you get in your car and drive to another. We westerners are not used to picking one out of ten in a row. There are no feelings to be hurt in picking Wallmart (one of my favorite bumper stickers – Mall*Wart, Your Choice for Cheap Plastic Crap) over Safeway. There are no feelings involved, only despised (at least in my case) corporations. I hate having to do business with any of them.

In the States, little choice is involved; even markets selling “healthy foods” are, with few exceptions, corporate pigs. Now here in Phnom Penh we are beginning to see supermarket chains, and I confess I do go to them; where else can I buy a stick of butter? I’ll even admit to buying meat there. Not because of concerns about hygiene; I believe in eating a little nasty stuff on a regular basis just to keep the old immune system on guard. The problem is I don’t know how to buy meat at the public markets. I can’t tell a filet mignon from a rock-hard chuck steak and don”t know how to ask for the good stuff. They don’t know the difference either; they’ll sell you both for the same price.

But I’m getting off topic; to whit, I’ve never been to another place where public markets constitute such a large part of civic life. Except for the part about bargaining, which I intensely dislike, and the related occasional discomfort of getting ripped off, I far prefer the public market scene. The variety of merchandise and services available is astounding. I’m not a “shopper”, that is, it’s not something I derive enjoyment from, rather a chore I do when I must. Still, when I do have occasion to visit Psar Orissey, for instance, I’m enthralled by the activity and intensity.

Public Markets are also far superior from the social standpoint. They support many times the people and allow for large numbers of entrepreneurs. Even if it”s only a square meter market stall, it still provides better working conditions and more potential for advancement than cashiering or stocking shelves at a chain supermarket. There are thousands of small business people at Orissey in a space not much bigger than a Wallmart where a handful of low-level managers rule over maybe two hundred peons.

In the corporate scenario all the profits go to the top. Hopefully, the advent of supermarkets into the total mix will only serve the new wealth coming on line and leave the public markets and many small entrepreneurs with their current place in Cambodia”s civic life.

Cambodia is growing very fast economically – an amazing 13% last year – as it must to better the lives of its citizens. It’s also undeniable that people like the modern air-con trappings of the new economy. But would we ever want Cambodia to emulate life in the US? Replace public markets with chain supermarkets? Replace small businesspeople with wage slaves?

I”m always a bit mystified when I see expats hanging around in places that are trying to emulate American burger joints. Come here to go there? It makes no sense to me. On the other hand, I”ve rarely been accused of being normal. In the long run, the “upgrading” of Cambodia is probably inevitable. Will we be forced to abandon it in search of another undeveloped Shangri-La?

Stan Kahn

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