"Preserve the old, but know the new"

As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a grocer. To me, being a grocer was better than being the Prime Minister of Australia.

Even before I first stepped into my grandfather's store for an after-school job, I knew I wanted to be a part of it. It was there I belonged.

To me, it meant being somebody in a neighborhood full of nobodies.

Working at a grocery, you weren't like anyone else. You ate whatever you wanted. It meant that you could pick the best and nobody ever gave you trash.
In the spring, when the fruit was the freshest we would eat grapes all night, nobody ever said a thing.
          
At first, my parents loved that I found a job so young. My father, who was a Vietnamese refugee, was sent to work at the age of fourteen and liked that I got myself a job. He always said Australian kids were born lucky.
             
And my mother was happy after she found out that the people I worked with came from the same part of China that she did. To my mother, it was the answer to her prayers.

I was the luckiest kid in the world. I could eat anything. I could sell everything. 

I knew everybody and everybody knew me...

Now that story continues with the launch of our online grocery and specialty Asian goods business - Seasia Foods (brought to you by a couple of Good Fellas).