Revenue has decreased by half compared to before the Covid-19 epidemic
At 8 p.m., Cau Cong market (Doan Van Bo street, District 4, Ho Chi Minh City) is still crowded with people passing by. again. At this time, small traders in the market are still working, people free labor is busy returning home.
At this time, the bread truck of Ms. Le Thuy Lieu (44 years old) is at “rush hour”. Customers come to buy continuously. Ms. Lieu and her two employees always make bread. Soon the ingredients ran out. Within half an hour of standing there, Ms. Lieu had to go inside to get more goods to serve customers.
Ms. Lieu said that the bread cart is always open for sale from 3:00 p.m. Most crowded in the evening. Because that is the time when freelance workers get off work and go to the store to buy bread for dinner instead of rice. The bread truck opens late at night until 1:00 a.m. the next morning.
Ms. Lieu’s bread shop has a variety of fillings such as pha lau lua, sausage, eggs, meat… she and her husband prepare to cook every day.
Thanks to that ” real meat” real eggs, the price is reasonable, most eaters gradually become regular customers for many years.
Each loaf of bread costs 18,000-25,000 VND depending on the type of toppings eaten with it. The price of each loaf can be reduced or increased depending on the needs of diners. But whenever she sees anyone having difficulty watching elderly workers still struggling to make a living, Ms. Lieu always secretly gives her bread or gets a little more filling.
It is known that Ms. Lieu’s bread shop sells 300-400 rolls/day. According to the female owner, this sales has decreased by half compared to the time before Covid-19.
“Selling food like this is very difficult. My husband and I have to get up early to get new products because we don’t use ingredients that stay overnight. The pre-processing stage is also because we work hard to prepare until it’s time to sell, then clear the goods until 5 a.m. before resting, so it’s been a repeating cycle for the past 17 years,” Ms. Lieu said.
According to The owner of this bread cart has a hard time because the seller has to carefully select and process the ingredients Business food issues related to the health of diners are the most important. That attitude has brought prestige to the bakery for 17 years years old.
“Our wheeled cart is called “Mr. Fat bread” because in the past my husband was very fat and people often called him that. But he worked so much that now he’s skinny and no longer fat” Ms. Lieu said with a smile.
There’s nothing left because of trusting and helping people
Ms. Lieu confided that this bread truck is the passion of her husband, Mr. Luu Van An (56 years old). Previously, Ms. Lieu from Vinh Long came to Ho Chi Minh City to start a business and then met Mr. An.
Faced with a choice Regarding her husband’s age difference of 13 years, Ms. Lieu nodded because she liked the gentleness and sincerity of the middle-aged man. After getting married, she laughed and said that they were quite “agreeable” about their age difference, but he was really one The couple loved each other no matter how much they argued and argued.
At that time, Mr. An worked as a security guard with a salary of only 600,000 VND/month. When his wife became pregnant, he was afraid that he would not have money to take care of the child With a baby about to be born, An worked part-time at a restaurant to increase his income.
After 1 year, because of his passion for cooking, he decided to quit his job and use the 8 million VND he had saved to rent a house and start a car. selling bread. That was also the time when their first daughter was 1 year old.
“We only have that one daughter, so we are determined to do everything for her. At that time, the family had a very difficult time selling only a few dozen loaves of bread to make enough money for the children to drink milk, while my husband and I had to make ends meet,” Ms. Lieu recalled.
Gradually, his bakery opened. She became familiar with the workers in the Cau Cong market area. From a few dozen loaves a day, they sold 600-800 loaves of bread with “huge” revenue.
The truck owners laughed together. The two of them also went through the days when they had to eat bread except for rice.
Love your daughter and you and your husband always work hard to make money so they can go to school Mr. An was only absent when he took his daughter to school and recently took her to work.
Tell happy stories while always holding hands with Ms. Lieu, who suddenly stopped and shyly confessed that she and her husband Still living in the rented house to sell bread for the past 17 years. Their daughter recently moved to live with her parents-in-law.
“It’s embarrassing to say it, but until now we still haven’t been able to buy it. House. For many years, I don’t know why all the money I make goes nowhere,” Ms. Lieu laughed.
The bread shop owner shared that she and her husband have a “hobby” of helping family members. Whenever she sees anyone in her family having difficulty or a friend coming to borrow money, she gives it generously without asking for it back.
“Seeing people like that, maybe I didn’t help them. If God gives me a bowl of rice to raise my children to go to college, I will repay the blessings of taking care of my family members. Right now, my husband and I don’t have enough money to buy a house of our own, but we still have the strength to keep saving and one day we will be satisfied,” Ms. Lieu thought.
Ms. Ha Thu, a small trader doing business at the market said that Ms. Lieu and her husband are still living in a rented house where they have been selling bread for many years.
” Ms. Lieu rarely goes out, so the bread shop is rarely without her and her husband. Lieu and his wife are very gentle, they are only interested in business, do not like to gamble at all and are very worried about their families and relatives,” Ms. Thu said.
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