Recently, I paid an unplanned visit to a chocolate café. Accidentally because I was planning to visit a café nearby, but then gave up because of the (tourist) crowd and would like to try something new instead of familiar places.

Who would pick a cup of chocolate priced at 120,000 VND while they can have a cup of Starbucks or % at a slightly same price and come with an Instagrammable shot, or having a cup of household chains at half the price?

(signature hot coconut chocolate – June 2025)

Apart from the price tag, it was quite a pleasant surprise.

The shop was playing “ Wake Me Up When September Ends,”  and then a Coldplay song. Ooh, didn’t expect that millennial 04-09 vibe. The vibe of my generation.

Being a millennial in this age inevitably requires you to ‘step down’. You listen to Rose or younger Vietnamese artists, you watch Girl Love Boy Love series, you watch the remake version of One Day or How to Train Your Dragon just to realize 10+ years have passed. You consider whether you should abandon your skinny jeans, not because of choices, but because brands now prefer to make baggy jeans and your pair of skinny jeans suddenly becomes a limited edition in your wardrobe.

So when I heard the melody of that Green Day song, it was half a feeling of coming home, half of feeling like where I belong.

Then you saw the red sneaker. It was quite a déjà vu moment when you looked back at the photos you took in 2016 and here they were the red sneakers. Not many brands that can retain the tradition after all these years.

A bartender once randomly shared that she could make a careless judgment whether a bartender is properly trained or not just by the way he or she holds a bottle in a certain direction.

If the same principle applies, it’s difficult to ignore a decent store manager when you observe the way they pay attention to details and instruct the younger staff who sometimes are clueless. I was glad I saw one the other day.

When I browsed the old photos, the price of a signature bold chocolate drink was 100,000 VND in June 2016. Fast forward to June 2025, the price was 120,000 VND. I let AI do a simple calculation: an average annual price increase of approximately 2.2% per year over the 9-year period.

2.2% is even less than the annual inflation. As a business owner, keeping the price of the signature drink almost unchanged over 9 years is not an easy task.

(the chocolate, taken in 2016 – feel like just yesterday)

One thing though – why are there so many staff in such a tiny store?

disclaimer: the post is for non-profit purposes only. Views are my own, not investment advice, and no responsibility is attached.