J.M. Merchant Export/Importer

You can find us at stalls 445 and 446 right inside the heart of Crawford Market. If you’ve ever been here, you know it’s a total maze of people and goods. We’ve been doing export and import work from this little corner for a long time. The space is pretty tight, but we’ve learned how to stack things high so everything fits. It’s always a bit dim inside the market building, and the air smells like a mix of old stone, spices, and whatever everyone else is selling that day. We spend most of our time on the phone or dealing with customs papers and shipping manifests. It’s a lot of back-and-forth communication. We don’t have any fancy air conditioning, so we just rely on the high ceilings of the market to keep things from getting too stuffy. Most of the other traders nearby are like family to us since we see them every single day. We grab tea from the same guy who’s been walking the aisles for years. We aren't a big corporate office with glass walls. We are just a small trading outfit in a busy market. Sometimes a shipment gets delayed and we have to stay late under the old lights. It’s just the way things go when you’re dealing with international trade from a place as busy as this. We just keep moving and handle one crate at a time.