New Richmond Night Market to Compete With Existing Night Market

[LonesomeDove]

http://www.vancouversun.com/night+ma...285/story.html

They say competition is good for the consumer but will a new night market on Duck Island near the River Rock Casino be successful?

People only have so much money to spend. And the operators may have a harder time in making money with so many night markets around. And what does this mean for the Vancouver Chinatown Night Market?

The former operator of the night market on Vulcan Way is now the operator of the new market. This guy lost his lease at the Vulcan Way location but retained the rights to the Richmond Night Market name.

[dmyvr]

I think this is the 2nd attempt to bring back the original night market. Last year or 2 before, they tried to setup at the Starlight casino area, but couldn't get enough vendors onboard, and ended up cancelling I think.

[Stinger]

http://www.vancouversun.com/night+ma...285/story.html

They say competition is good for the consumer but will a new night market on Duck Island near the River Rock Casino be successful?

People only have so much money to spend. And the operators may have a harder time in making money with so many night markets around. And what does this mean for the Vancouver Chinatown Night Market?

The former operator of the night market on Vulcan Way is now the operator of the new market. This guy lost his lease at the Vulcan Way location but retained the rights to the Richmond Night Market name.

The old night market was always better anyway. The last few years have just been cell phone accessory dealers and over priced food. At least before you took the risk of getting food poisoning because the food and bubble tea was cheap... but now you pay more for the added "experience".

[wranglery]

Early reports say that the Night Market by River Rock is packed even though they are charging $1 admission. To offset it, it's free parking. The vendors are more or less the same. People were saying half hour wait time at the food court while the food itself is awful.

We usually go to the SUMMER night market by Home Depot early and can find some parking on the street. I think I will skip the Night Market and just visit the SUMMER night market this year.

[doberman_baby]

Miss the Richmond night market at Landsdowne where there was no cover charge and free parking.

[adwoodw]

We went to the Richmond night market by the River Rock on the weekend. If you were going to use their free parking, you were subjected to extremely long line ups to get in and out of the lot. The area is completely congested and is not designed to handle this amount of traffic. I can see patrons and workers coming by car to the River Rock being annoyed at this since it prevents them from accessing the casino in a timely manner. It would be faster if you took skytrain and walked. We were supposed to meet some friends their but they were stuck in a horrendous traffic jam on No. 3 road and decided to go home instead. While my wife was eating with my little boy, she talked to some older ladies that came to the night market using No. 3 Road, and they said it took them almost 2 hours to get from their house in Richmond and into the parking lot.

Entrance gates:


Stage area:



The site is alot bigger than the old location, but it lacks seating. They don't have enough tables/benches to sit down at if you want to eat and alot of people were just crowded together in the food fair muching away. We ate are our overly price mediocre food on the opposite side of the food fair to the south of the main stage. My wife sat on this cement block and also used it as a table. There was also no seating in the stage area. Maybe they are waiting for all that revenue from the $1 admission to come in so that they can rent more seating/tables?

Main seating area by the washrooms


If you are a fan of this night market, you can buy a $10 or $20 pass. The advantage to this pass is that they give you 2 bonus admissions with the $10 pass and 4 extra admissions with the $20 pass. I don't think we will be going that many times so we will just stick to paying the $1 admission if we go again. I don't think many people knew about the admission fee of $1 as there was much chatter about it while lining up to get in. Nobody got out of line because of it, but it was certainly a surprise and had people digging in their purses and pockets for a loonie.

ATMs located in container:


There were supposed to be carnival rides according to their website, but we didn't see them. They did have a few 'midway' type skill games for kids like 'throw the ball into the hoop' but no rides like a Farris wheel.

Basketball for kids:


There seems to be alot more food vendors at this night market vs the other Richmond location. The waits for certain stands was a nightmare while others had minimal waits. The line for that spiral potato on a stick was the longest I have ever seen it as there were probably about 80 to 100 people in line at around 8pm. We had some deep fried squid, very small plate of noodles, and some siu mai. Total cost $12. I probably waited about 10 minutes for the squid and another 10 for the noodles and siu mai.

Food Fair and Food:



























Purple Tree Area by Food Fair:






Market Tents:

[myversa]

Thanks for the photo. I went to the summer night market and this year they do not allow you to go in before 7 and there were much fewer booths this year.

[sandy_beach]

What's it like there? Still the same cheap cell phone accessories and other miscellanious cheap stuff?? Not worth ghe waiting time and crowds! I'll happily wait for the market at the PNE.

[adwoodw]

Lots of electronic accessories like cell phone cases, socks, clothing, hello kitty type cute toys, wallets, computer stuff like mice, keyboards, etc. all this stuff is available on EBay for a better price if you can wait a bit due to shipping.

Basically, it's the same product list as last year and the year before. They also had some corporate booths like Shaw.

[Lone_Prodigy]

So the new one is more accessible (by transit) but charges admission? Huh.

I miss the old Chinatown Night Market. The last time I went it was only one block.

[adwoodw]

I think the one in Chinatown is up and running as well. Not much to see an do at that one unless you are already downtown. We went to it last year and finished it in about 15 minutes. Didn't eat anything there either. We ended up at Ba Le and Kim Saigon for Vietnamese subs.

[GYR8]

I think the one in Chinatown is up and running as well. Not much to see an do at that one unless you are already downtown. We went to it last year and finished it in about 15 minutes. Didn't eat anything there either. We ended up at Ba Le and Kim Saigon for Vietnamese subs.

Quite possibly the most delicious subs in the city, IMO.

GYR8

[adwoodw]

Quite possibly the most delicious subs in the city, IMO.

GYR8

I always get the meatball sub when I go to Kim Saigon. Wow, I can't believe they went up to $4 now. Still great value for something so tasty though.

[bargaincowboy]

nice pics. To me, both night markets are bleah now.

[fefrie]

The traffic is a little bit better since the buzz of the new place died down, but it's still pretty bad I think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36NLZbPjW0w&feature=plcp

And the stuff? Sort of the same stuff over and over, year after year. I can't even think of anything interesting or new this year. Even the cell phone accessories are pretty boring if you don't own an iphone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euQlU8-Z9EQ&feature=plcp

And I really can't understand the Rotato?

It's ONE russet potato (and a small one at that) being sold for $5 that is at best a novel idea, but essentially just a frenchfry on a stick with potato chip flavouring....