An Afternoon Market in Chinatown, Jake

Perhaps nowhere in the city are produce vendors more prevalent than in Chinatown. The bustling neighborhood, whose heart lies at Canal Street and Bowery, is riddled with small stands selling parishable goods at absurdly low prices. On a stretch of Forsyth Street just south of Canal, starting at 3 p.m. seven days a week, vendors sell goods brought down from the Bronx that they've purchased in large quantity. This bulk-buying is why the price tags are so low, and the droves make their way as soon as the trucks roll in. We stopped by recently to check it out.

In the tail end of winter, much of the produce available was mimicked from table to table, but the inventory covered about a dozen different fruits and vegetables. Look at those prices!

The lines move quick.

See that deep groove in the sidewalk? This vendor keeps things in order by having everyone stay to the right of it. At one point, he was joking with the crowd and tossing what looked like fruit pits at those who weren't playing by his rules.

The market gets so busy that it's profitable even if you only sell two or three products.

You can see the vendors from the pedestrian path on the Manhattan Bridge.

The market doesn't have an address, but you can get a gist of where it is if you have a look at this map. And we were told it's open daily from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Happy shopping.