Commerce & Consume

The Tribeca Mall is a huge shopping complex located next to the M2 motorway in the centre of the island. In the last ten years, malls have been built all over the island, which I see as a sign of the growing consumerism of the Mauritian population. And although the majority of Mauritians are Hindus, Christmas seems to be a big deal in the trade. During a brief chat with a salesman at a promotion for the Porsche Taycan, an electric sports car, I learned that importers had sold over 130 Porsches in Mauritius last year, a place where the speed limit on motorways is 110 km/h and some lorries don't go faster than 30 km/h on the same road. 

Fruit pickle is a very popular snack in Mauritius. Various types of fruit are pickled in a very spicy sauce made from chilli peppers, tamarin, chilli salt and other ingredients. Pickle stalls are therefore ubiquitous wherever there are people, and are run by independent vendors.

One of the most modern supermarkets in Mauritius is in Tamarin, on the south west coast of the island, a place popular with expats from South Africa and Europe, but I also hear a lot of Russians walking the aisles.

Although there are large shopping centres and supermarkets all over the island, entrepreneurship is still strong in places like Bambous, a town that has all the hallmarks of a workers' settlement.