The Public Market has established itself as a centenary institution and through tradition has stood out among other retail oulets of the kind in the state´s capital. The research aims at identifying the factors that lead shop-owners´ descendants to succeeding or not their parents in business. The Ethnographic method allowed the acquaintance with that reality. The first generation of traders, that descend from Italian immigrants and came from rural areas in the countryside of the state, has established a network. Although formal education determines the pursuit of another carreer, the son is expected to take over from his father in business. Young male children who have quit school are supposed to start getting familiar with their parents´ workplace at an early age so as to replace their progenitors later. Female children should preferably remain away from the Public Market because it is a male dominant environment. Their insertion only happens if they fail in their careers or become widowed or divorced. The conflicts between parents and children result from generation differences due to the emphasis placed on the "new" by the latter and the attachment to the "old" by the former.
organizational culture; family enterprises; succession process