The covered market on Harbour Magu has twenty two stalls, and the council allocates them.
Fourteen are for fish and produce, five for prepared food, and three are short term stalls kept for anybody selling something occasional: a family selling for an event, a grower with a season's crop, a school fundraising.
Rent is four hundred rufiyaa a month for a permanent stall and fifty rufiyaa a day for a short term one. Rent is paid at the counter in the first week of the month. Two months unpaid and the stall is offered to the next name on the list, which is published on the board at the market and on this site, in order, with the date each name was added.
The list is the part people care about most, which is why it is published rather than held in a drawer. There are currently nine names on it.
Stalls are cleaned by their holders and the building is washed down by the council on Friday mornings. Ice is sold at the market office at cost. The market is open from five in the morning until eight at night, and the fish side is busiest in the first hour, which is worth knowing if you are buying for a household rather than a shop.