In Vietnam’s fast-growing commercial capital Ho Chi Minh City, most people buy cheap condoms from no-frills roadside kiosks, at the drug store or in supermarkets.
But two brothers have opened an upmarket condom boutique in the city, saying customers want more choice and more sophisticated options — even in a country known for being socially conservative, where sex education is taboo.
“Doing this business is good for the public and the society,” 28-year-old Nguyen Khanh Phong says.
“We went to the authorities and asked for permission and they allowed us,” his 21-year-old brother Nguyen Hoang Long says.
“Now things come easier,” he says, adding that the business — open for more than two months — was thriving.
The shop, called Volcano, makes no attempt to hide what it’s selling. Condom boxes are stuck to the glass doors of the tiny store, the walls are painted pink and shelves are stacked with condoms from across Asia.
“We spent a lot of money,” Phong says. “It looks friendly.”
The Fuji Shock brand from Japan is popular amongst Volcano’s customers, even though it costs about five times as much as the 5,000 dong (US$0.29) box of three locally made VIP condoms.
“When they take this out, it’s like some chocolate candy,” Phong says, showing off the shiny wrapper.
Another Japanese condom on display has a light that illuminates when the man ejaculates.
“Our customers really like the design of the Japanese condoms,” Long says.
High-tech Japanese condoms are not for sale at Tai Sanh’s condom booth, one of many spread out in the Chinese quarter of the city, formerly known as Saigon.
Cigarette in hand, Sanh, 60, sits on a low red stool behind his display case filled with boxes of VIP condoms. Customers looking for something more exotic may opt for the X-Men. At 10,000 dong each, the condom has round rubber studs.
Sanh says roadside vendors make buying condoms much easier, especially for Ho Chi Minh City’s legion of motorcycle riders who can simply pull up, make their purchase and quickly be on their way.
“We sell a lot,” Sanh says, adding that he stays out of trouble with the authorities by not selling pornographic DVDs, sex toys or fake anti-impotency drugs, which are banned.
In the capital Hanoi last month, authorities seized bags of aphrodisiacs and sex toys hidden in a tree along a street known for the illicit business, Thanh Nien newspaper reported.
Making and distributing pornography and other “debauched cultural products” can be punished with jail terms of up to 15 years in communist Vietnam.
But such things are easy to find.
At one Chinese medicine shop in Ho Chi Minh City, a vendor scurried to the back of the store, where he furtively demonstrated a battery-operated purple and red dildo that lit up.
Long and Phong stick to selling condoms, which they say is a big enough market in a country where attitudes about sex were changing — especially among the youth.
“Vietnamese are open-minded people,” Long says.
They say they want to offer their customers the widest variety of condoms available. They even stock the locally made brands, although Phong says they lack “special features.”
The brothers say their customers are willing to pay for quality and service.
Frequent buyers receive a discount. For their more shy customers, they offer delivery service.
“To open this shop we spent more than 20 million dong,” but first-week sales reached around 1.5 million dong and revenue now exceeds 10 million dong per week, Long says.
The pair say they will open new condom outlets next month in Ho Chi Minh City and in nearby Tay Ninh Province, and are also looking for a location in the central city of Hue, Vietnam’s ancient royal capital.
Business may be good, but in a city where billboards warn about the dangers of HIV/AIDS, the brothers say they are actually serving a greater good, one backed by the authorities.
“The government is encouraging us to sell this,” Long says.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS