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At 7:30 am inside the Reading Terminal Market on the day before Thanksgiving there is a mad dash of activity.\u00a0 The green grocers are frantically stacking mounds of collard greens, yams, and onions.\u00a0 Butchers are icing down freshly killed turkeys and the Pennsylvania Dutch bakers are wondering if they\u2019ve made too few or too many pumpkin pies this year.\u00a0 For many of the 80 merchants inside this over 100 year old public market in downtown Philadelphia today is the busiest day of the year.<\/p>\n
Outside customers sip coffee provided by Market management as they wait for the Market to open.\u00a0 To pass the time, they map out their strategies for getting their shopping done as quickly as possible.\u00a0 Traditional wisdom holds that you save the heaviest purchases, like turkeys and potatoes, for last, for in this bustling 2-acre public market, jammed full with all manner of fresh and prepared foods, there are no shopping carts or centralized checkout.\u00a0 If, however, you save your turkey purchase until the end of your shopping list, thus avoiding carrying a 20lb bird around for an hour, you may find your favorite butcher surrounded by an impenetrable wall of customers.<\/p>\n
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At 8:00, as the doors open, the planning stops and the shopping frenzy begins.\u00a0 Couples split up to divide and conquer the shopping list with a promised rendezvous for blueberry pancakes or croissants.\u00a0 As the line at Termini\u2019s Bakery slows to a crawl, good natured patrons start folding the bakery boxes to help speed the process.\u00a0 As the customers move like hordes of locusts through mounds of produce, workers hustle to restock and replenish the ravaged displays.\u00a0 The ticket machine at Godshall\u2019s Poultry completes the first circuit of 001 to 100 and back again.\u00a0 The game is definitely afoot.<\/p>\n
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In the midst of all this, of harried buying and selling, there is a sense of collegiality.\u00a0 Customers share and debate cooking tips and shopping secrets.\u00a0 \u201cDo you brine your turkey?\u201d \u201cOf course.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWhere do I buy lemon zest?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cYou don\u2019t buy it; you get it from peeling or zesting a lemon a lemon.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cOh thanks.\u201d\u00a0 And despite the pressure to finish waiting on one customer to get to the ones that are waiting, merchants make the time to quickly trade milestones with customers: birthdays, funerals, weddings, etcetera.\u00a0 For customers and shopkeepers alike, today is part business and part family reunion.<\/p>\n
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At Godshall\u2019s Poultry, the staff works feverishly to keep up with the demand for locally raised, freshly killed turkeys, sage sausage for stuffing, and bacon for the weekend.\u00a0 In between calling out the next number in line or asking \u201ccan I get you anything else today?\u201d they pause to advise a nervous first-time Thanksgiving hostess on the ins and outs of cooking the perfect turkey.\u00a0 \u201cCook it at 350 degrees, 14-15 minutes a pound.\u00a0 If it\u2019s stuffed, you want an internal temperature of 165 degrees.\u00a0 You\u2019ll want to use a meat thermometer.\u00a0 You can buy one down the aisle at the kitchen store.\u00a0 You\u2019re welcome.\u00a0 Good luck.\u00a0 Number 88.\u201d\u00a0 The next day, if all goes according to plan, a beaming young woman will take a bow for serving a Thanksgiving masterpiece and a lifelong customer will be born.\u00a0 It is in these moments that they keys to the Reading Terminal Market\u2019s longevity can be found.\u00a0 For in this exchange of money for merchandise, there is also something more personal and less transactional going on.\u00a0 What happens here day in and day out is not complicated; in fact it is simple, simple and very, very hard to do.<\/p>\n
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Many of today\u2019s customers first discovered the Market as children brought here by parents or grandparents.\u00a0 No doubt overwhelmed by the crazy quilt of sights, sounds, and smells of the place, they quickly learned the value of patience.\u00a0 For after being dragged from stall to stall seeking the freshest meat or ripest tomatoes, there was always the hope of a dish of Bassetts Ice Cream.\u00a0 Today they return as prodigal sons and daughters of the Market, having moved out to the suburbs away from the row homes where they or their parents were raised.\u00a0 They find themselves drawn back to the city, foregoing supermarkets offering free turkeys to shop in this place where food is not so much a commodity but a central part of someone\u2019s life work.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a sign of unoriginality that leads the shopkeepers to name their stores for themselves, Giunta\u2019s Prime Shop, Bassetts Ice Cream, Beiler\u2019s Bakery, etcetera, but rather a sense of pride in the foods they grow, prepare, and sell.<\/p>\n
For those travelling some distance, perhaps the trip to the Reading Terminal Market is not a necessary evil to find what they need to prepare Thanksgiving dinner.\u00a0 The trip itself is an essential part of the Thanksgiving experience; it is the quest that reminds them that preparing and sharing food with the ones they love is a sacred experience.\u00a0 Perhaps today includes the initiation of a young family member into the hurly burly of the Reading Terminal Market, making them part of a tradition that stretches back to 1892, when the Reading Terminal Market first opened its doors to the public, a tradition that hopefully includes a dish of Bassetts Ice Cream.<\/p>\n