Special store in rich area of Ho Chi Minh City, poor people come to buy continuously

The wealthy Thao Dien neighborhood has a special store. Here, shoppers can easily find popular items, sometimes even branded goods.

The meeting place of the rich

Knowing that Thao Dien ward (Thu Duc city, Ho Chi Minh city) has a zero-dong store, Ms. Linh from An Phu ward, Thu Duc city, brought 3 bags of old items to donate. The bags were full of children's toys, blankets, clothes, teddy bears... that were washed clean and fragrant.

After Ms. Linh, a few people came on motorbikes, stopped in front of the gate, and handed their bags of donations to the store volunteers. Although the volunteers asked for their names and addresses, they shook their heads and said no before quickly leaving.

The representative of the zero-dong store who received Ms. Linh's donation was Ms. Le Thi Uyen Nga (69 years old).

Ms. Nga is not a volunteer but has many contributions and is asked to help receive donations when the store is empty.

Mrs. Nga’s house is a few steps away from the store. In her free time, she often goes to the store to help volunteers sort through old items. Therefore, she knows the operations and side stories of the zero-dong store very well.

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The man handed the bag to Mrs. Nga and quickly left. Photo: Ngoc Lai

Ms. Nga shared: “The second-hand items at the 0-dong store in Thao Dien ward are of good quality and beautiful. In particular, many people donate clothes that are 90% new or still have the tags.

Thao Dien Ward is near the Saigon River, with an isolated living environment. Therefore, wealthy families often choose this place to settle down.

Whenever they clean their house, they call volunteers from the store to collect donations. Sometimes, they also give away old branded clothes, shoes, etc.

Mr. Pham Duc Hung (35 years old), Chairman of the Red Cross Society of Thao Dien ward, is the manager of the ward's zero-dong store.

The store was established in July 2022 by the Red Cross Society, the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee and the Thao Dien Ward Youth Union. The store was opened and maintained with the aim of supporting workers facing difficulties after the Covid-19 pandemic.

At first, the store was open from Monday to Saturday every week. Later, some volunteers were busy, the store was short of staff, and could only serve 3 days a week.

The zero-dollar items here are very diverse, with all kinds of essential items. Besides clothes that take up most of the space, the store also has shoes, necessities, children’s toys, pots, pans, dishes, etc.

The store's volunteers are self-employed or retired women. They work voluntarily and do not receive any financial support.

“The volunteers of the zero-dong store work very hard even though there is no financial support or drinking water.

Currently, the store has 4 volunteers, of which Ms. Le Thi Hien (46 years old) works as a maid, while Ms. Bong and Ms. Ngoc participate in local work.

A young volunteer who takes care of the store's books often comes in on weekends.

Whenever they have time, volunteers come to the store to sort items, do laundry, and put them on shelves...

Sometimes, people give us clothes that are no longer usable, moldy, or smelly. However, the elderly volunteers do not mind the hard work and dirt to collect and clean them up,” said Mr. Hung.

Foreign guests come and go continuously

Thao Dien Ward is famous for being home to many wealthy people. Therefore, many people are skeptical that opening a zero-dong store in the area seems unnecessary.

However, the zero-dong store in Thao Dien ward does not only serve the poor in the area. People in neighboring wards, even provinces, can still come here to receive goods for use.

Mr. Hung shared: “Zero-dong stores, wherever they are, bring certain values. Not only poor workers, lottery ticket sellers, construction workers… look for used goods. I see some foreigners and people with means still come here to look for items that are no longer produced, and are difficult to buy even with money.”

Besides Vietnamese customers, the store is also crowded with foreign customers. Most of them are middle-aged women who come to Ho Chi Minh City to work as maids for foreign families, Vietnamese tycoons, etc.

Previously, the store allowed people to pick up as much as they wanted, without any limit on quantity. However, many customers came to pick up too much.

With the desire to reserve the best items for later arrivals, the store posted notices in Vietnamese and English to control the number of items each person received.

Accordingly, each person is only allowed to take a maximum of 10 items (clothes, toys, books, shoes, etc.). At the same time, the store is divided into 2 warehouses, one is open to the public, the other is only open to the needy. The quality of the goods in the 2 warehouses is similar.

Mr. Hung shared: “People from districts and provinces have to travel far to ask for used goods, but if there are no good goods left, they will be at a great disadvantage. Therefore, we proactively distribute goods, ensuring fairness for everyone.

Many people come to the store on holidays, just call me and a few minutes later a volunteer will come to open the door."

Previously, many people donated old items in the style of “house cleaning”, giving away items and clothes that were no longer usable. In such cases, volunteers had to spend time screening but the results were not very effective.

“In the future, we sincerely ask donors to please choose items that can still be used if they donate old items to avoid having to waste time with older volunteers and paying extra garbage disposal fees.

Up to now, this situation has decreased, kind-hearted people are more selective, even washing clean clothes before giving them away," said Mr. Hung.

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Many people come to get clothes at the zero-dong store. Photo: Duc Hung

Rarely, volunteers have discovered gold and valuables in donated bags several times. There have been many cases where donors mistakenly put new shoes and bags into old bags. When the mistake was discovered, the owner quickly called Mr. Hung and asked the store to keep them.

To prevent these situations, volunteers wait about 1-2 days before taking out the donations.

At the end of April 2024, the 0 Dong store in Thao Dien ward encountered a case where a donor forgot more than 2 taels of gold in a bag of used goods. Upon discovering the gold, Ms. Hien quickly informed Mr. Hung.

The store then handed over the gold to the Thao Dien Ward People's Committee, waiting for the owner of the gold to come and claim it. However, the owner of the gold has not yet come to claim it despite the store's extensive notice.

After the notice period, if no one comes to claim the gold, it can be put into a charity fund to care for the needy.

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Ms. Hien enthusiastically puts socks on a student who comes to buy goods. Photo: Ngoc Lai

In addition, on the first and fifteenth day of every month, volunteers regularly distribute more than 100 vegetarian meals to the needy.

For nearly 2 years, the Thao Dien Ward Zero-dong store has been following the criteria of “those who have extra come to give, those who need come to take”. This affirms that, wherever, kindness is always needed and love is never redundant.