Memoirs of an Ice-Cream Lady (Part 41)
By Emily Ho
Editor’s Note: The author (email: icecreamladyhk@gmail.com) runs an ice-cream parlor on Hong Kong’s Lamma Island. When time allows, she draws caricatures and writes. The following semi-autobiographical anecdotes blend fact and fiction.
Sniping From 10 Sides
After the SARS disease subsided, retail opportunities appeared to re-emerge in Hong Kong, including on Lamma. Some shops and restaurants reopened even before the economic recovery.
To Emily’s surprise, her tiny ice-cream shop became a common target for other shop-owners (and even her own supplier). To use a Chinese saying, it amounted to “sniping from 10 sides”, which means being attacked from all directions.
Suppliers and Agents
In the retail business, vendors are supposed to be the “bread-winners”. Suppliers or agents need them to sell directly to customers.
Yet some of Emily’s suppliers appeared to forget all the rules and their obligations during economic difficulties (their own difficulties, to be exact). They didn’t care if vendors survived. It resembled a starving tigress eating her own cubs.
One hot Saturday afternoon, Emily wondered why not a single customer had bought a popular fruit bar. Then a friend returned from the city, stopped by and revealed something unexpected. “Emily, I saw a long queue at the pier on Hong Kong side. I looked closer and noticed that a new shop had opened at the entrance. Do you know what? It sells the same fruit bars you do, even at a much higher price!”
“Are you sure?” Emily said. “The fruit-bar supplier agreed from the beginning that I’m an exclusive vendor here. How come another outlet can take my profits by selling the same things at the pier? On Monday, I’ll call the supplier and check it out.”
Never Say Die
As Emily planned, she telephoned the boss of the fruit-bar supplier. “Hello, Mr Wong. It’s Emily at the ice-cream parlor on Lamma Island. How are you?”
“Good morning, Emily. I’m fine. Thanks. What can I do for you?”
“I’ll get straight to the point. Is it true that a new shop sells your fruit bars at the entrance to the Lamma Pier on Hong Kong Island?”
“Right! Is there a problem?” he asked, pretending to miss an obvious one.
“Well, you’ve told me often that I’m the only vendor here, and that there’d be no competition between vendors since you’d appoint just one per district. So why does another one sell the fruit bars right at the Lamma pier? Now they take most of the business from me. Last Saturday, I had no customers for your products. Zero!”
“We’ve said you’re the only vendor ‘on Lamma’,” Mr Wong tried to explain. “The one at the pier is in Central. Of course, we’ve thought about the impact on your business, but we don’t have many options.”
“Oh, thanks so much for explaining that to me. Do you think the people buying fruit bars at the pier aren’t the same ones coming to Lamma and that they just go to the pier without visiting the outlying island?” Emily felt like an underdog, but refused to yield until all hope had vanished.
“Emily, I’m terribly sorry, but there’s nothing we can do right now.”
“No, I should be the one to apologize. Nobody knew your brand until I started selling the products. I was the first client when your company opened in Hong Kong. Despite a rather low commission compared to other ice-cream brands, I’ve tried my best to sell your products one by one when customers visited my shop. I’m sure many people know your brand mainly due to my efforts. Even some newspapers reported about your fruit bars in my shop.”
In vain, Emily expressed her feelings. She felt like a wife soon to be abandoned, but intent on telling her husband how much she’d cared and sacrificed for him. Then she’d be dumped, and no one would care for her.
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