Tradition spurns technology

Mai pou owner sticks to his traditional grocery business

Left: Different kinds of rice have different characteristics: They can be soft, hard, sticky or spongy. Right: Chiu Yam Hua smiles for his customers. (Eric Tsang)

By Eric Tsang

Traditional grocery stores, com-monly known as mai pous, were once popular in Hong Kong, but not anymore.

According to an article in Ming Pao in August, there were once more than 550 mai pous in Hong Kong. Today, only one-fifth of them have survived and they are scattered throughout the region.

Chiu Yam Hua, 55, is one of the few remaining mai pou owners. His mai pou, called Tin Shun Ho, is located in Tai Wo wet market.
“At first the mai pou was only a brick house.

“There was a long, two-lane-wide staircase in the market. People had to climb up and down while shopping,” he recalled.

The staircase is now a main road.

Mr. Chiu worked as a staff in the mai pou in its early days.

In the past, a mai pou boss and his staff were like a master and his apprentice.

He watched and learned from two different bosses before he took over the mai pou.The first generation dates back to the 1960s.

“My boss passed this mai pou to me some 20 years ago. I spent a year learning and memorizing attributes of different goods.

“But this is not enough to guarantee being a successful mai pou boss at all.

“I have to get along well with my customers. This is something that cannot be taught,” said Mr. Chiu.

He said that people patronize his mai pou as it is trustworthy and more like a trademark, acknowledged by the neighborhood.

“Why do you think a patron who moved to Kowloon years ago keeps coming a long way back here just to buy our homemade spicy preserved pak choi?” he asked.

“Also, wai tau people, the indigenous villagers in Lam Tsuen, flock to buy rice and tons of supplements at around 6 a.m.,” he said.

He cares about his customers’ needs.

“When my regular customers come, they do not have to tell me what they want. I already know it,” he said.

Furthermore, he makes his mai pou a convenient and comfortable spot for his elderly customers to meet each other.

“I prepare some Chinese black tea for them to sit down, take a sip and stay for the whole afternoon.

“I often help them take care of their grandchildren for a while. And when they go to the public toilet, I keep an eye on their goods bought from the wet market.

“Of course, I charge them nothing. Giving a helping hand to needy ones is normal, right? It does not cost anything,” he said.

Mr. Chiu is glad to see his mai pou become the locals’ favorite. He has known most of his customers for 20 years.

“Those youngsters who used to come with their parents have grown up. They now come with their own children.

“The old tastes from their childhood urge them to come back. You know, taste buds bring good memories,” he said.

Because his loyal customers keep coming back, Mr. Chiu’s customer base grows with every generation and is ever expanding.

“But first, I have to be approved by my customers. My prestige is not built on nothing. To run my business, I follow four principles,” he said.

Mr. Chiu’s first principle is to provide customized service for each customer.

“For example, every kind of rice has its own character – soft, hard, sticky or spongy – which depends on the soil and weather of its origin.

“I cater to different customers’ personal tastes and give them tailor-made rice by mixing different portions of the varieties. With decades of experience, I can even tell their preference at first sight,” he said.

“How about supermarkets? Don’t ever think about it. They treat everyone indifferently and the monotony there suffocates people,” he said.

His next principle is never to overprice his goods.

Mr. Chiu offers the most reasonably priced merchandise to his customers, who are also his friends.

“Frankly, I do not care whether the business makes a fortune. As long as my staff get their salaries, the revenues balance the expenditures, and I have no debts, then I am satisfied,” he said.

His third principle is to not advertise excessively.

Mr. Chiu does not advertise his goods with fancy words on huge and eye-catching banners, claiming that his goods are cheaper than those sold by others.

He said, “There must be a reason behind unusually low prices. I will never compromise myself to provide cheap goods by lowering their quality.

“It will put my mai pou’s reputation at risk. My emblem of honesty was built with years of enormous effort.”

Mr. Chiu’s last principle is to believe in hospitality.

“Like what popular Andy Lau always says, nowadays business cannot be done in the way it used to be. When serving customers, having a good attitude is a must,” he said.

“My past was tinted with blood and tears,” Mr. Chiu said.

“You cannot imagine how hard it was,” he added.

“My mai pou opens at 5 a.m. and closes at around 8 p.m., depending on each particular day. Basically, I have no holiday except when a typhoon comes. My whole year is spent within this little square.

“But, I still love my job.”

This accords to a Chinese idiom: Happiness is brought by satisfaction, not extravagance.

Mr. Chiu’s business peaked in the 1990s but then it plummeted due to the economic downturn.

He said, “The ever diminishing spending power is pushing me towards the edge of a cliff, not to mention the fierce competition with supermarkets.

“No doubt there are cheap goods in supermarkets, but they serve as baits.

“Once you are pushing your shopping cart along the aisles, the comfortable atmosphere attracts you to stay long. Then you buy more unnecessary goods unconsciously.”

Getting agitated, he continued, “Don’t be silly. You cannot compare our preserved duck eggs, sun-dried tangerine peels, and marinated baby onions with those in supermarkets.

“Many of those goods in supermarkets are low quality, even though they seem to be economical.”

Mr. Chiu said that no matter how rapidly the supermarkets’ sales figures rise each year, he is not going to follow suit.

“A mai pou should always be a mai pou. It makes no sense for a mai pou to be modernized like a supermarket,” he said.

For example, air-conditioning in his mai pou is totally out of the question.

“The rice and preserved items would get moist if the power went out. I don’t want to see them get ruined.

“The fans can bring in enough fresh air even in the hot summer.

“In fact, I try to keep everything as old-fashioned as possible. That’s why I never refurbish my mai pou.”

The primitive style captures this mai pou’s uniqueness.

“Also, do you know why the elderly don’t like shopping in supermarkets? It is because they detest bar-codes, plastic wrapping, and long queues at counters.

“And they think the high shelves and the staff are both unapproachable.

“They love to talk to me and their old friends here. This mai pou provides us with a sense of belonging,” he said.

The intimate friendship with his neighborhood encourages him to go on with his business.

Asked if he would turn it into a family business, he sighed and said, “I won’t expect my son to inherit it. He simply doesn’t have that devotion to the mai pou. He belongs to the younger generation. A mai pou doesn’t.”

The mai pou sells canned goods, dried sausages and preserved food. (Eric Tsang)

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