Buổi 59: Speaking – Chợ đường phố, mua sắm trực tuyến & một doanh nghiệp nhỏ bạn biết

Bài mẫu do khóa học viết; tiệm và nhân vật là giả định.

I’d like to talk about a tiny bakery near my office. It doesn’t really have a name – everyone just calls it “the bread lady’s place” – and it’s run by a woman in her fifties and her son.

They only sell a few things: two or three kinds of bread, some sweet buns and coffee. There are no seats, so people just queue on the pavement, pick up their order and leave. In the morning, though, the queue can stretch halfway down the street.

What’s special about it, I think, is that they bake everything in small batches throughout the day, so whatever you buy is still warm. The owner also remembers what her regular customers usually order. The first time she said, “The usual?” to me, I was genuinely surprised, because I’d only been there four or five times.

As for why it’s successful, I’d say there are two main reasons. One is that they’ve found a niche – they don’t try to compete with the big chains on variety; they just do a few things really well. The other is word of mouth. They’ve never advertised, as far as I know, but people tell their colleagues, and the queue keeps getting longer. Even though it’s a very small business, it’s become a bit of a local landmark, and I think that personal touch is something big companies find very hard to copy.