Throughout the afternoon, a humble Vietnamese man kept popping through the side entrance and looking around for something. I caught on that he was scouting out the shoes of people, so that he could find potential customers. He was a shoe-shiner, and where else to offer services then at a busy cafe where many tourists, business people, and socialites gather?
He would ask people if they'd like to get their shoes shined, but most people declined. Finally, I was heartened when his perseverance did pay off about an hour after I first saw his head peek over the handrail on my side. A businessman sitting at the table beside me contemplated the shoe-shiner's requesting face, looked back at his own shoes, and just when I thought that he was just going to get back to his partner and continue where he was interrupted, he beckoned in acceptance to the shoe-shiner. The latter came around the terrace and came up to the businessman's table to gather his shoes, replaced them with a pair of slippers, and went back to the side entrance of the cafe where he squatted down and started his labour.
After about 8 minutes of dedicated scrubbing and shining, he brought the newly-shined leather shoes back to the businessman who was engrossed in some business talk. The businessman asked him how much it was, and I couldn't really hear what the answer was, but he handed the shoe-shiner about 75,000 VND. That is about $3.25. I'm not sure if the businessman gave any tip in that amount or not, but $3.25 is not a bad rate for 8 minutes of work, considering that the average salary in Vietnam is $185 per month. The shoe-shiner would just need to get two clients per day to reach that target.
May more easygoing businessmen with dirty shoes come to cafes!
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