The Ranch Market Experience

Aloysius Canete

Nothing was more exciting than going to the Phoenix Ranch Market on my Feb 3, fieldwork in South Phoenix.  It was not just a grocery store that one usually experienced when shopping at a local Safeway or Fry’s.  It was a store with a different character and an atmosphere far removed from that of most grocery stores I have been to here in Phoenix.  Even while I was still at the parking lot looking at the store from a distance, I could already sense its identity, charm and appeal something that had a semblance of an outdoor mercado in a plaza in the Philippines where I come from. 

Inside the store, I could right away notice its festive mood as people bustled about looking for stuffs to buy while a Mexican song was played over a loud speaker.  As I was strolling in the store, I could hear store employees cheerfully answering questions from shoppers in Spanish.  There was never an instance where my eyes got so tired from looking at aisle after aisle of colorful produce from vegetables to tropical fruits to a variety of Mexican spices, all marked with bilingual tags.  The walls were peppered with bilingual advertisements like murals painted on the streets of the mission district in downtown San Francisco.  Stalls selling all sorts of products were ubiquitous, too.

But nothing was more colorful than the Panaderia.  Not only the fragrance of the hot, fresh bread was very inviting; an assortment of colorful cakes embellished with all sorts of designs was also hard for my eyes to resist.  I could not help, but just stared at them incessantly like lovers glued to each other’s eyes, unconcerned about the world around them.  But of course the experience would not be complete without a taste of the food available at La Cocina.  La Cocina (or “the kitchen”) displayed an assortment of different things from chicken tacos to enchilladas, from carne asada to chorizo and an endless list of dishes.  I finally got my order, and guess what?  It was chicarron with rice, beans and a bunch of tortillas.  Hmm.  I could not wait to eat my food, as my plate was spewing out the aroma of a Mexican dish. 

 

The Phoenix Ranch Market was indeed more than just a shopping store.  It was a place where shoppers and employees alike created a sense of community.  While it is true that store owners have appropriated Latino space to create an identity that shoppers can identify with, the way in which shoppers and employees use this space also forms and informs the identity of Ranch Market.  As James Rojas aptly puts it in his article “The Latino Use of Urban Space in East Los Angeles”, “[t]he identity of place is created not only by the physical forms but by the way [Mexicano residents of East L.A.] use exterior space around their homes and businesses” (1999:13; my emphasis).  In this context, it is in/through the use of the exterior space in and around Ranch Market that the identity of the place is constituted.

24 March 2006