I was in New Zealand for a year(from October 2023). I am cheap and bought cheap veggies all the time at supermarkets. Probably Avondale Sunday market is the best option for getting cheap veggies and fruits. I went there twice and told you what it was like. You can check out the previous story here.
The location and the time of the market
The market takes place every Sunday from 5 a.m. to 12 p.m. It is just 12 minutes drive from Auckland Central and 40 minutes by bus(4 NZD). If you have your own transport, I will recommend you every Sunday for your household.
There is a large parking lot with a small fee, 3 NZD by cash. A person is at the entrance of the parking and you need to hand cash to them. Produce there is really cheap comparing PAK’n SAVE, the supermarket chain with the cheapest produce in NZ, so 3 NZD is well worth it.
My experience
There are piles of veggies and fruits. You can choose the best ones from the piles. Some of them get bruises, so you need to be careful to sort them. There are many farmers as well. That’s why you have many choices of the same produce. If you are keen to save money, I suggest you to walk through the whole market before purchase. At some shops, ugly veggies were even cheaper.
I bought cheap ones, spent about 10 NZD, and they were a bit too heavy to hold and shop through the market. In New Zealand, at supermarkets and restaurants, the use of plastic bags was avoided to reduce plastic, but in this market, you can get plastic bags for free at some shops.
Shops adjacent to parking were not from farmers. In total, more than half of the shops were farmers. The rest were clothing shops, cookware, accessories, phone accessories, and so on. They were basically Asian. Clothing shops were the most among them. You can get a parker from famous sports brands like Adidas, and Nike just for 10 NZD. You can have a look at phone cases and connectors.
The place was lively with lots of people. Especially, shops with veggies and fruits were busy and I needed to line up for payment. Most of the shops took just cash, not cards.
The market is also good for sightseeing. You can have a good look at produce from New Zealand. It was interesting for me to watch unknown ones. My flatmate, my manager drove me there and I didn’t have enough time. I could have been there for hours.
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