Ziwei Middle Road, Chuzhou City, Anhui Province, before dawn, the crowd was crowded with people. There are many young people coming to the market. "Showing" photos of the market, posting videos of the market, and going to the market has become a new fashion for young people.

Now, more and more young people are attracted by various large gatherings. Not only are they big gatherings in the city, but also visiting rural markets is becoming an important choice for "taste bud tours". Why do young people fall in love with going to the market?

The market has the "flavor of place". Although you can "buy nationwide and sell nationwide" with a light click of your finger, some local delicacies are difficult to cross mountains and hills due to their short shelf life. Freshly baked, with better flavor. Tasting delicious food at the market naturally became the favorite of some tourists.

The market has a "lively atmosphere". In addition to the shouts, many markets also have folk performances and intangible cultural heritage experiences, which are both fresh, fun and lively.

There is "strong nostalgia" in the market. The markets in different regions have different characteristics and forms, but they all carry the culture and traditions of the place, and they can easily arouse people's nostalgia.

Traffic is also an incremental development. More people love to visit rural markets, which not only adds popularity to markets, but also provides inspiration for rural development.

Although the ever-extended express delivery network has brought great convenience to rural life, unlike online shopping, selecting products at the rural market is more immediate and can better meet daily needs. Therefore, markets, supermarkets and shops are still important places to facilitate residents' lives.

Although "own traffic", in reality, some market places have not kept up with the infrastructure and the sanitary environment is poor; some management services need to be strengthened, and random parking is often seen during peak periods; some products are not rich enough and are not attractive. From this perspective, renovating and upgrading commercial infrastructure, including rural markets, is not only a matter of meeting the living needs of rural people, but also a useful measure to improve the rural consumption environment.

In response to these shortcomings, the Ministry of Commerce and nine other departments recently issued an action plan, proposing to use the transformation and upgrading of "Thousand Collections and Ten Thousand Stores" as a starting point to renovate 5,000 township markets (trade centers, markets, etc.) and about 50,000 rural convenience stores by 2027.

Promoting the transformation and upgrading of markets can not only provide convenience for the lives of rural residents, but also cultivate new economic growth points. Taking Jingui Dachuang in Helan County, Yinchuan City, Ningxia as an example, this comprehensive market integrating shopping, catering, viewing and leisure has 109 "opened" times in 2024, with an average transaction volume of 1 million yuan, and an annual transaction volume exceeding 100 million yuan. Today, the market has more than 300 merchants, with a daily passenger flow of 50 million to 10,000, and a maximum of 30,000 during festivals.

The county's consumer market is vast. The county's consumption capacity is constantly improving, consumption concepts are constantly changing, and consumption structure is constantly upgrading. The release of this part of demand can bring about a very considerable increase in consumption. Renovating and upgrading rural markets can become an important tool to stimulate the vitality of the county's economic vitality.

The market is not only a place for buying and selling things, but also a carrier of local traditional culture. The transformation and upgrading of rural markets should also be able to be fully connected with modern life and integrated with cultural and tourism industries. For example, in Haotang Village, Xinyang City, Henan Province, the local area focuses on creating seven special leisure markets such as intangible cultural heritage and time-honored products to promote their continuous development and growth. The villagers' main source of income has also changed from growing grain to tourism services.

The most taboo in renovating and upgrading the market is to "one side of a thousand collections". Only by exploring local cultural characteristics, creating characteristic markets according to local conditions, and promoting the deep integration of markets with rural tourism, cultural and creative industries such as culture and creativity can we avoid falling into homogeneous competition. Not long ago, a survey on the store data of Shanghai coffee and cultural and creative brand "Yi Chi Garden" showed that most of the top ten stores in the comprehensive index are located in towns and streets in remote suburbs. Although the "One-Foot Garden" store cannot be completely equivalent to the market, it also tells us that the distance from the city is not a decisive factor in the size of the attractiveness. Whether it can win the market depends on whether it has characteristics and how it feels.

Create more distinctive, vibrant and charming markets, and the urban-rural circulation will be smoother and rural development will be more supportive.