Market hall

A market hall is a covered space or a building where food and other articles are sold from stalls by independent vendors. A market hall is a type of indoor market and can be found in many European countries. The most common variation of a market hall is a food hall, an area of a department store where food is sold.^[1]

Market halls and food halls can also be unconnected to department stores and operate independently, often in a separate building. A modern market hall may also exist in the form of what is nominally a gourmet food hall or a public market, for example in Stockholm's Östermalm Saluhall^[2] or Mexico City's Mercado Roma.

Unlike shopping mall food courts made up of fast food chains,^[3] food halls typically mix local artisan restaurants, butcher shops and other food-oriented boutiques under one roof.^[4] The term food hall in the British sense, meaning an equivalent of a market hall, is increasingly used in the United States. In some Asia-Pacific countries, a food hall is equivalent to a North American food court, or the terms are used interchangeably.^{[citation needed]}