It’s a Living: Work & Life in Vietnam Today

Chapter 6: Selling

SELLING 128 SELLING 130 flower seller My name is Yến. I’m 40 years old, and I work as a flower seller at Mơ market. This is my third job and I’ve been doing this for 10 years. Before this, I worked for a construction company for 16 years until it went bankrupt. At first, I went back to farming in the countryside. Then, after awhile, I started selling flowers in Hanoi. Every day, I get up at 4 a.m. to buy flowers wholesale from a good friend at Mai Dịch market. On a normal day, I buy around 250 to 300 flowers, but on holidays like the first and middle of the Lunar month, Teachers’ Day, Valentine’s Day, or Women’s Day, I can buy anywhere between 600 to 700 flowers. Then, I ride to the Mơ market with the baskets of flowers. I used to cycle around Mơ market selling flowers from the back of my bicycle because mobile selling was incredibly efficient. The flowers would sell out fast. But these days, I just sell them from my spot under this tree. Sometimes business is really slow and the hours just drag by. On an average day I make around a 60,000 đồng [$3] profit, so that means about 1.8 million [$90] a month. That’s just enough to SELLING 131 cover the basic living expenses for my family. I’ve got two kids: the first one is already married, and my second girl is in her last year at university. She’s got a part-time job selling cigarettes so I don’t have to pay her tuition. If I compare myself to other flower sellers, I make less money because I always charge the same price no matter who you are. I figure this is the best way for me to keep my old customers and attract new ones. Really, I get customers from all walks of life. But if I had to break it down, I’d have to say that a lot of my customers are housewives. Then there are the older people who buy flowers for the beginning and middle of the lunar month, and the young professionals who want flowers to decorate the office. I don’t get many people buying flowers to give as gifts, or for weddings or other ceremonies — that’s when people go to a flower shop instead. Roses are my bestsellers because they’re cheap and you can use them for almost every occasion. I also sell lilies, mums, and moon flowers. Of course at Tết, I sell a lot of peach branches and peach trees. I buy them wholesale at Nhật Tân in the weeks before the New Year, and sell them right up to the day before. The increased profits go to helping me prepare to celebrate Tết with my own family. I usually take a week off to spend time at home and then I go back to work on the sixth day of the New Year. There are things that I like and things I don’t like about my job. I like the control that being self-employed gives me. I can stay home when I’m sick, when the weather’s bad, or when I’ve got family business to attend to — no need to ask the boss for permission. Plus, the start-up costs are low and the job doesn’t require any special skills or training. On the other hand, working with flowers is really hard on your hands — by the end of the day, my hands are covered with cuts from handling the roses. And while this job may give me a lot of freedom, the downside is that my income is dependent SELLING 132 SELLING 133 on factors outside my control. I remember rainy days when I considered myself lucky for having sold just three flowers. And the day after a heavy rain, the wholesale price of flowers skyrockets and it’s hard for me to make a profit. Or there are the times when someone’s chosen their flowers and I’ve wrapped them up, all ready to go, only to have the customer realize they left their money at home. Sometimes I really wonder whether this job is worth it...