The Mahaneh Yehuda market has a wide variety of businesses.
By DAFNA SHEMERFarmer markets in Jerusalem(photo credit: Courtesy)
Recent years have seen increased tourism in farmer’s markets throughout the world. The local market, Mahaneh Yehuda, is no exception. We examined the mix of businesses in the market to see how this trend has manifested here.The boundaries of the market are not clearly delineated, but we defined them for the sake of this assessment as covering the streets between Jaffa Road to the north and Agrippas to the south, Etz Haim (the roofed part of the market) to the east, and the Iraqi market and Mahaneh Yehuda Street to the west. In all, we examined 370 businesses situated within an area of 19 dunams (1 dunam is approximately ¼ acre). By way of comparison, Malha Mall has nearly 230 stores spread out over some 20 dunams in a building with two-and-a-half floors of commercial space.Most of the businesses in the Mahaneh Yehuda market focus on selling food. Fruit and vegetable stands are the most prevalent type of stall (82 businesses), constituting 22 percent of all market businesses. There are 25 kiosks for nuts, seeds and snacks (7% of businesses); 22 butchers (6%); 18 bakeries and 18 spice shops (5% each); 12 fish shops (3%); nine pastry shops; and seven pickled goods stalls. In all, these comprise more than half the businesses in the market (52%).The market has a wide variety of businesses, including 24 clothing and accessories stores, 15 housewares stores, three stores for cellular telephone accessories, three jewelry stores, two lottery stands, and one synagogue (on Ha’egoz Street).Specific types of stores are concentrated in certain areas. Thus, for example, if you have a craving for fish, chances are good you would buy it on Hatapuah Street, which has four fish shops (and until recently a fifth), one-third of the fish shops in the market. If you want to buy meat, you likely looked for it on Haharov Street, which has five butchers, one-quarter of the market’s total. The Iraqi Market and Georgian Market have large concentrations of fruit and vegetable shops.If you want to take a break from shopping and want to eat something, you’ll find the widest variety of restaurants and pubs near the intersection of Hatut and Ha’egoz streets, where your options range from falafel and kubbeh to fish and chips or jahnun.Four food service chains operate in the market: three falafel stands and one ice cream stand. Some of the restaurants and pubs stay open after the market stalls have closed, thus extending the hours of market activity.If you make plans to meet someone near the Ethiopian spice shop, you’d better be specific, as each of the parallel streets of Hashazif, Ha’afarsek and Eliyahu Banai has a shop of Ethiopian spices, legumes and dried foods.All findings are current as of our tour and examination of the market, after we used the services of Google’s street view as a basis.Translated by Merav Datanwww.jiis.org
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