Baluty Market

Abstract

This article examines food buying culture in Lodz, Poland through a microstudy of a local food market. Market squares which sell produce and other products persist in Poland's postcommunist economy although they are competing with international supermarket chains. Over the past several years consumers in Poland, affected by globalization, have turned to hypermarkets—which have sprouted in virtually every major city as a place of convenience and prestige—to purchase their food including local produce. Also as a result of globalization, some Poles have become aware of movements in the United States and Germany towards eating organic foods and supporting local producers of food. Consequently, they have turned to their local markets as sources of these products. The markets have responded to both types of consumers in some cases by labeling produce as organic and in other cases by stocking a wide variety of foods, not only those locally produced. This article examines the intersection between the local food economy of Lodz, Poland and the globalization of the postcommunist food economy.