Every evening is the busiest time of Rua da Tercena, workers move in and out of this narrow street for wholesale deals, while vendors and local citizens shop for fruits. The street is flanked with various fruit shops, most of them have been there for generations, including the Frutas Tong Vo Cha, a wholesale business for nearly 80 years.

Ip Veng Tai, the owner of Frutas Tong Vo Chan, is now the third generation of the family business and running the shop with his mother, which has been in operation since the 1940s. According to Ip, this fruit street has a history of over a century, but the busy period has remained the same starting around 7 pm. Ip said that they mainly deal with fruits from mainland China, but now the market demand for foreign fruits grows, and they change to sell  fruits imported from other countries.

"Supermarkets may replace traditional markets in the future, as young people all choose to go to the supermarket to buy fruits, vegetables, meat and even fish instead of coming here," Ip said. With the change of time, fewer and fewer young people work or even go shopping in the fruit street, as large food markets can choose to import goods directly from abroad. The traditional old streets may only be preserved in the memories of older generations.

Ip has a son and a daughter, and they all have other jobs. For the fruit shop, Ip's routine work often finishes near midnight. "Young people are afraid of hard work, it is hard to see young people working here, and my children have no intention of helping the family business," Ip said.

In Macao, lots of traditional industries have gradually declined, most of which have no younger generation to inherit. Although the century-old fruit wholesale business is still busy, with a rise of the new business pattern and purchase behavior, there may be a big impact on old fruit shops.