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Citizen complaint of the day: There's a very rude vendor at Haymarket

A concerned citizen complains a vendor at Haymarket is obnoxious:

There is a vendor here that yells, swears and is rude to customers. He does this all in front of his son and other children/families without provocation. Is there anyway to have him written up or is there an association to call to complain or is Haymarket just unregulated? Thank you.

Ed. note: Remember when the waitresses at Durgin-Park were obnoxious, and we liked it?

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Comments

#@&^% picture.

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The Haymarket vendors have been acting that way since year one. They're not exactly the most culturally refined people on Earth. The pearl clutching poster is obviously not from Boston.

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And there is plenty of competition so that you need not buy anything from the rude ones or the cheats.

I would go to Haymarket every week in the summer as a college student, and by mid summer I knew who I would and would not go to - which ones put out the nice stuff and gave you rotten shit in a bag, which were rude and/or sexist pigs, etc. True capitalist choice there.

One afternoon a vendor was incessantly calling "SUGAH SUGAH MELONS SUGAH SUGAH SUGAH MELONS SUGAH MELONS SUGAH ..." and a couple of the vendors around him started screaming obscenities at him but he wouldn't quit. I got my bike and hung out some ways away to watch the tourists flee the scene and the throwing of rotten produce commence.

Just think of it as historical theater where you can get a good price on peaches.

The "want some meat?" dude? He was creepy, but he did have good stuff for good prices. http://www.chow.com/food-news/7137/shop-haymarket-like-an-expert/

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Any chance you know if they still sell t-shirts with that saying? My dad bought one 30 years go and it has shrunk to almost kiddie size. I always wanted to replace it for him but could never find it.

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Vendor: "Get your 2 pounds of oranges for a buck" here..
Customer: " Are they fresh"
Vendor: " No there not fresh", "You wanna back hander" I'll give you fresh.

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There's swearing going on at Haymarket!? Well, I never...

I watched a vendor pull out every racial epithet in the books one time because a Chinese woman dug her thumbnail into a potato to see if they were starting to rot or not.

I watched a guy think he could haggle on the prices (seriously...what were you thinking, dude, they don't go any lower) with another vendor who told him he'd lower the price but only if he would be allowed to cut off the man's balls in return.

I mean, come on, people. This is Haymarket.

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What I wouldn't give for more vendors like this guy at Haymarket:

http://youtu.be/ETSl8gWsFZ0?t=30s

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..of market peddler songs and chants. Verna Gillis made a great compilation for Folkways of Cuban fishmongers as part of her street music field work.

It's funny that masshole culture is just in your face and cut to the chase.

The South Asian guy you found seems to have found the perfect hybrid of his native speech rhythms applied to English to draw a prospect in.

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I agree that it's ridiculous to complain about a rude Haymarket vendor, but I'm with the complainant on the swearing (although a Citizens Connect complaint isn't the place for that either.)

I'm well aware that this is an old-fashioned and unpopular stance, but I find unrestrained swearing in public really unpleasant, like a slap in the face from a random stranger. Someone told me once that he felt less inhibited against swearing in public than he would in a private conversation among friends, which I don't understand at all.

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" Someone told me once that he felt less inhibited against swearing in public than he would in a private conversation among friends, which I don't understand at all."

Actually, it kind of makes sense. Like there are certain circumstances every so often where one might tell something personal to a stranger that one would not be so quick to tell a friend or relative.

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Nah, I'm with you on that one, although I must admit that I've become inured to it in recent years.

But, yeah, I'm going to side with everyone who has said, "C'mon, it's the Haymarket." I'll also add my two cents and say that I only shopped there if I absolutely knew I was going to be able to cook the produce on the same day that I bought it. I definitely found the freshness to be a bit lacking, but that really wasn't surprising with the prices the vendors charge.

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It's theater. Join in the fun or go home. (Or patronize the younger, next-generation vendors, many SE asian, who aren't into that schtick.)

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Interesting. I had one grocer tell me that the Hunts Point Terminal Market (in the Bronx) had been "locked up by the Koreans." Meaning that if you wanted to get an in on the high-quality, well priced produce, you had to be Korean. I don't know how true that is, and given that it's a ginormous operation, I find that hard to believe. I will say, however, that I'm frequently in one neighborhood in Brooklyn, and the Korean green-grocer there has excellent produce year round.

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Sounds like my princess condo owner neighbor (acknowledging the complainer might be male) who thinks everyone should be regulated (except for her).

I agree with swearing in public just being nasty. Some decorum and self-control makes for a less gross world. But I learned that, as mentioned, this is part of the theater of Haymarket.

The one place that has a near Medieval fair feeling. The bluntness, rudeness and general maltreatment of customers is the fun.

On the other hand I've noticed that over the years the brusque and blunt attitude of Haymarket vendors have overall decreased significantly. Maybe there are many fragile suburban youngsters living in the city and expecting to be pampered and, god forbid, not see or hear people being a little earth. So the vendors have in general turned down the volume of their theatrics.

I will take the stench, the fresh fish (if only it was flopping around), the occasional swearing and yelling, the gruff brusque exteriors over antispetic, more costly produce from supermarkets everyday. It's the same produce afterall.

These folks are at Haymarket every Friday and Saturday (excepting holidays I imagine - have never gone there on a holiday) throughout the year. Anyone who whines about the vendors' gruffness should stick their delicate butts outside in winter all day.

Like Curly would day, The noive! (Would the delicate flower know who Curly is?)

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The first time I went to the Haymarket I had been forewarned about the gruff vendors and the fact that they would select and hand you the produce. I was prepared. I went to a vendor, and asked for what I wanted. The guy looked at me, thrust a plastic bag in my direction, and said, "Well, pick it out, honey!" So, maybe what you say is true.

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There are Farmers Markets happening throughout the city.
http://www.cityofboston.gov/calendar/markets.asp

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It's a dressed up data base for food resources of every description.

The farmers market system is included.

http://www.localharvest.org/

Then we have

http://www.mass.gov/agr/massgrown/farmers_markets.htm#Suffolk

The entry level grift at that old Boston thing is special. I remember the old rotten sweet potato trick.

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I got your sweet potato right here!

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Take it away Stuff Smith.

http://youtu.be/dTTMJIXWo6c

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in front of Filenes, who used to yell; 'Get your nuts! Get your hot nuts here!' ?

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Is this Citizens Connect or Yelp?

"For Rent" sign outside a Beacon Hill Door
*Eek, me thinks not!

Cursing sales associates hawking 20lb bags of carrots.
**Meh, I've had better.

Space savers.
***A-OK.

Homeless turkeys.
****Yay, I'm a fan!

Rats throwing rave parties every Saturday night on Beacon Hill.
*****As good as it gets!

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Former Mayor Menino use to do suprise checks on friday and some got caught seeling bad not fresh fish and got written up.

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