Ngan, a 22 year-old student in Logistics, tells us how he feels about his condom shop.
Ngan is completely relaxed talking about his shop Safe Sex, “Sure as Corn” , the first adult shop in Vietnam, opened last June. “Sure as corn, “Chac nhu bap” in Vietnamese is our slogan and website name (chacnhubap.com). It is a Vietnamese proverb”, Ngan explains. “It’s related to the quality and safety of our contraceptive products. People want it to be 100% sure. But the sentence is also humorous in this context… it is quite a metaphor!”, he smiles.
Located on 166 Bui Huu Nghia, Binh Thanh district, the 20-square-metre shop sells contraceptives, pregnancy tests, aphrodisiacs. “We also sell flavoured condoms, love rubber - condoms with rubber spines, vibrating rings, massage lubricant”, Ngan says showing the products. “The best seller is definitely the love rubber! Once we explains how it works, our customers buy it straight away and want to try it on the very night!” The adult products are displayed in shelves. Ngan is ususally behind the counter and leave customers to choose products on their own. “Most of my customers are male”, he explains. “They feel more confident to ask me questions rather than ask a woman. In the West, I think it is the opposite, as sales women would be perceived as more attractive to sell such products! The atmosphere is different there anyway as there is a lot of porn as well in these shops.”
Ngan’s friends and relatives thought Ngan was crazy at first. "No one has opened such a shop in Vietnam. It was totally risky, both commercially and culturally," says Ngan. "It is unknown territory as sex is a sensitive topic in the conservative society. To open an "adult shop" was a challenging idea, but Ngan saw a potential business. "Sex is a normal thing, just like when you feel thirsty, you drink water. Why should we shy away from our basic needs?" he completes. It has been a labour of love to build the shop, literally being done with Ngan’s own hands. “I am very pleased with the final result and feedback so far is also very promising”, Ngan says. “In one month, I have seen so many different attitudes from customers”. At the beginning, Ngan kept the door open looking for his first customer. But soon, customers started pouring in. “One day, a whistling young man wandered in Ngan recalls. As soon as he realized what the shop was selling, he stopped whistling and his face turned red. The young man did end up, however, buying a box of condoms for usd 1.50. But most of the time, we don’t have customers that shy. Our customers want to know everything. Some of them even ask us when we will have more products, more toys, more magazines!”
Ngan’s shop is quite a symbol of Vietnam’s opening and reforms. But Ngan does not seem impressed. “Well I started this business out of a simple idea, he says. I was reading a foreign magazines and I fell on an article talking about sex shops. I told my girl friend that we should have one in Vietnam. Why don’t we have that in Vietnam? That would be exciting, why don’t we open an adult shop in Vietnam? Let’s do it!” After spending few months for the administrative paperworks (the shop is declared as a business providing tools to fight against AIDS and help the limitation of two kids per family), his Safe Sex shop finally opened on 18 June 2009. “I opened the shop in my house. So I had no problem with finding a place with an open minded landlord. At first, people in the street were clueless. They never saw such a shop before. You know, this street specialises in motor bikes repairing and spare parts… so it is quite a macho environment! The contrast is blatant and it is so funny. At the opening, they were staring at us and our customers like if we were coming from another planet! But now they are fine with it I guess. We are a usual shop for them now. Even more, word on the street is that we support government birth policy control, which is encouraging families to have only two children. Indeed we sell contraceptive products and above all, we give away OK branded condoms for free”.
Ngan is also confident that with the economic development, there will be a cultural opening about sexual issues. "I will keep on doing the business, and hopefully, develop Safe Sex into a famous and long-standing brand," Ngan says. “But I also want to sell more diverse products. So far we are limited by what is imported by local distributors. So our products are classic, nothing to fancy or funny like I saw in my magazine before. But time will come, I am confident about it, when people will have a rational attitude toward sex and not consider it as a taboo. I hope my shop can help in the process!”
