Straw Market

What is the Bahamian Straw Market?

Face it, half of the appeal of going on vacation in the Bahamas is that you can come back with some fantastic souvenir or another that is going to make all of your friends and co-workers green with envy and allow you to share the tales of your vacation for weeks to come with your adoring listeners (and admit it, isn’t it kind of nice to be the star of the office because you went to the Bahamas and not because you’ve done something horribly embarrassing?)

When looking for a one of a kind souvenir it’s not necessary for you to go to some fancy souvenir shop-you’ll only end up spending too much for something you could have bought in the airport just as easily. Instead, take the time to visit the straw market on Nassau. Open from 9 am to 5 pm on downtown Bay Street, the straw market offers tourists handmade wares created, not from the straw that mainlanders are familiar with but from the leaves of the palm and sisal plants that grow indigenously on the islands.

Palm and sisal leaves are far superior to straw for crafting because it allows the crafter to work with a wide, firm material that weaves easily. This means that rather than the fragile baskets that we find on the mainland these products are built to last. You can find baskets, mats, hats, coasters, jewelry and virtually anything else your imagination could create come to life before your eyes beneath the hands of the artisans wielding the materials. If you are particularly lucky and can convince a crafter to agree you may even be able to be the lucky recipient of a custom made product crafted directly in front of you.

The straw market was born when the sponge industry began to fail in the 1940s. Desperate to keep their economy moving, women began crafting dolls, baskets and bags with sisal and palm leaves and selling their wares to visitors. This craft expanded, particularly when the Bahamas came further into the public eye following World War II, and markets have been established in Nassau, Cable Beach, Paradise Island and a number of the Family Islands.

Of course, it is not only straw that is being sold at the straw market (another major incentive to steer clear of other souvenir shops; prices are generally much lower at the market, and if you are a skillful negotiator you may be able to haggle them down even farther). Hats, photo albums, shot glasses, coffee mugs and clothing are side by side these straw wares, meaning that the market is essentially a one stop shop for tourists; they can get a fabulous straw hat for their mother, a snow globe for their sister, a set of place mats for their aunt and exquisite jewelry for themselves all in one fell swoop, and if they stick to their guns they can do this much less expensively then they would visiting a shopping mall.

Lesson? Take the time to visit the straw market. Despite the mental impression that the words “straw market” give, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity not to be missed.