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August 14, 2011SH** Hits the Phan: Viet Revenge on Round Eyes?
Every week our mail delivery woman puts a bunch of discount ads and inserts in our mail box. I typically don’t go through them but last week, the above insert from Cost Plus caught my eye. Not only was there a $10 off coupon, but those bags – advertised as the “Xuan Bag Collection from Vietnam,” caused my jaw to drop.
If you’re a Vietnamese language speaker, you’d see that the upside down “Phân Gà…” on the messenger bag says ‘chicken manure… use for all kinds of trees’. The smaller print in the ad said that “No two bags are alike!” so I wrote the chicken manure messenger bag off as an anomaly. My husband thought that I’d want to own one since it was so novel. Plus there was a coupon.
“I’d look ridiculous carrying around a bag that was formerly full of fertilizer,” I told him. Nix that idea.
Yesterday at our Saturday farmers’ market, I saw a middle-age White woman with one of the Xuan pulley bags designed for grocery shopping. It was hard not to miss the colorful tropical fruit print. I didn’t want to stare but I could have sworn that it too had the word “phân” on it.
In Vietnamese, “phân” means excrement. Note that the rooftop-like accent mark gives the word a different meaning than ph?n (portion, fraction); you may have seen that term on Viet restaurant menus in the form of com ph?n, a Vietnamese set meal. Without any diacritical (accent) marks, phan is a common Vietnamese surname, like the chef/restaurateur Charles Phan. As you can surmise, say or spell a word incorrectly in Vietnamese and the meaning can totally work against you!
After seeing the Xuan fertilizer bag at the farmers’ market, I had to check it out myself. We popped into our local Cost Plus this afternoon. I found the Xuan bags and giggled. I whipped out my iPhone and started taking shots of them because they were ALL former fertilizer bags!
A curious young clerk came over and asked if I needed help. I explained the meaning of phân and he initially ignored me as if he didn’t believe me. He started telling me how great the bags were because they’d been recycled and were designed for practicality. “This one was designed to fit over the back of your bicycle and you can load up both sides with groceries,” he proudly explained.
I looked at the bag and pointed out that phân bón meant fertilizer in Vietnamese. He looked at me with skepticism. “ ‘NPK’ refers to nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, the standard measurements for fertilizer. Go down the street to the nursery and you’ll see ‘NPK’ on the fertilizer bags!” I responded.
The young man paused, smiled at me and surprisingly said, “I really like that recycling idea. We have all kinds of shopping bags in the US that are made out of new materials. What a waste. I like these bags even more now.” Then he grabbed the bag that he’d just shown me and said that he was going to buy it for himself!
Whoever did the buying for Cost Plus may not have understood what phân meant. Or maybe they did recognize Vietnamese resourcefulness, design, and marketing savvy.
Would you use one of these former fertilizer bags? They’ve been meticulously cleaned! If you’ve seen one of these bags, what are your thoughts?
P.S. For a glimpse of Vietnam’s exciting fertilizer industry, visit this hyperactive site of Con Ty Phan Bon Mien Nam (The Southern Fertilizer Company): http://www.phanbonmiennam.com.vn/ I think that the pulley-style grocery bag may have come from this company.
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It figures that they're using fertilizer bags actually - those things are very tough and durable, and I've seen farmers repurpose them in all sorts of ways.
When I was a little girl in England, we used fertilizer bags stuffed with straw for tobogganing in wintertime. The plastic is slick enough that you can get a pretty good turn of speed going. Ours didn't have any pretty pictures on them though - just chemical data.
Posted by:Eve |August 15, 2011 at 03:49 AMI've seen rice sacks re-used too (I have one). I don't know if the fertilizer bags are stronger, but the former rice sacks have lasted me for years. It isn't nearly as pretty as the bags you're showing here, but it does have a cute pig on it.
Posted by:Mary |August 15, 2011 at 05:49 AMThose bags are hideous.
Posted by:Viet Mom of 3 |August 15, 2011 at 05:53 AMSitting in HCMC ROFL.
The bags were exported from areas in the south that are affected by Agent Orange. It is a good job of recycling USA waste bag to them.
Many years ago in the US flour sacks, sugar sacks and all sorts of bags were directly recycled into clothing. Granted it is not fertilizer, but recycling is something many did when faced with a need. We all get recycled at some point...
Posted by:John Taliaferro |August 15, 2011 at 07:20 AMI've become a fan of your blog ever since I discovered it - love your posts - and this is the best yet, (OK, I have to say it) IMHNSO. hahaha
I think this says so much, on different levels.
First, those of us in the US have an affinity for things with foreign languages - yet most of us can hardly speak - and write - our own.
Second, we're dumb.
OK, that's not totally true... just joking...
But I find the reaction of that clerk at Cost Plus to be amazing - yet that's very familiar. I'm from the Boston area - but lived in Tucson for 2 1/2 yrs. I was constantly amazed at the (how can I say..) what seemed to me to be a sort of plastic way clerks treated me. Was never really able to totally figure it out - are they afraid they'll lose their jobs (a real fear, I'm sure) - all I know is if I showed that to a clerk around here, I think we'd have a good laugh together!!
Don't know where you are, but I suspect where ever it is, there's that same mentality. (I also HATE it when grocery clerks are super-nice to me at 6am in the morning, when I'm trying to get cream for the coffee I haven't even had yet... just sayin'...)
It would be nice if someone tested these bags for the dangerous chemicals that used to carry.
Posted by:Lynne |August 15, 2011 at 07:43 AMHa! I think these are great!
Posted by:Wendy |August 15, 2011 at 09:30 AMDon't you find something awfully wrong and ironic that such repurposed fertilizer bags are being used by people purchasing sustainable and organic vegetables from a farmer's market??
Posted by:cameron stauch |August 15, 2011 at 10:47 AMLOL, best thing I read today.
Posted by:Gracie |August 15, 2011 at 01:15 PMThat's AWESOME! Cracks me up! I have a recycled bag, but I *think* it's for something else. It has a salmon on it, so who knows what the heck it was used for! It doesn't have any of the words you used, so hopefully I'm ok. Actually, I would still used it either way, I think it's funny.
Posted by:Amy S |August 15, 2011 at 01:20 PMI have seen several local vendors at street fairs & farmers markets selling similar items made out of: Kitty litter bags, chicken feed bags, and dog food bags. They are clearly marked in English so presumably the buyers here realize what they were used for previously.
Posted by:liz |August 15, 2011 at 01:38 PMThey are pretty colors. snicker You can even see the ratio numbers on three of the bags in the pictures. I'd like to see how a cross contamination test turned out.
My job takes me to a lot of different types of stores to take inventory, and it is always amazing at how dumb some of the clerks can be. All I can say is, thank goodness they aren't all that way!
Hey, ever had a grocery store clerk try to weigh your celery or carrots? I have actually witnessed this myself. Was so flabbergasted I didn't even know what to say. lol
Posted by:Min |August 15, 2011 at 02:24 PM"Round eyes," huh? Thanks for making us feel welcome here.
I think the reuse is clever, cool & funny. Messenger bags are a great way to carry one's sh!t...
Posted by:Round Eyes John |August 15, 2011 at 04:27 PMThanks for all the great comments. The fertilizer bags seemed pretty darn clean. There is so much irony in the bags and my conversation with the young man at Cost Plus. We became chatty by the end. He actually asked me to teach him how to say thank you and hello in Vietnamese.
I miss the days of using sturdy cotton rice bags for straining stocks, etc. Now I buy muslin!
The other item current on sale at Cost Plus that intrigues me is a "campaign desk" that seems to evoke the French Colonial era. As their mail insert said, "Keep calm and carry on."
Posted by:Andrea Nguyen |August 15, 2011 at 06:17 PMSo funny, reminds me a little of those tattoos that supposedly say "Serenity" or "Loyalty" in Chinese characters but really say "Coca Cola" or "Gas" ;)
But as Eve said above, fertiliser bags are very durable and great for reusing in all sorts of ways. I live in rural Ireland and we use them to carry and store sods of turf (peat fuel). Not sure that I'd want them near my food though...
Btw, just got your Into the Vietnamese Kitchen book on Kindle, Andrea, can't wait to try the Banana Cake recipe this evening. I'm obsessional about using up black bananas! I've only skimmed through the book text yet but I'm loving the introduction and the paragraphs before each recipe, it seems to put everything in context and helps me better understand the food culture.
Posted by:Lisa |August 17, 2011 at 03:09 AMThe recruiter contacted me again and said she wanted to set up a phone meeting for me with the director of the department, the big dog. From my internet research, I figured this was likely the last round of interview I had to pass in order to have my profile submitted to a committee where a hiring decision would be made on my behalf. If I secured an endorsement from the director, I knew I’d be offered a job. Per usual, the interview went well and I think I answered the questions well. All the while, I was supposed to be preparing and getting my stuff together for Spain. I held out until the last moment with my Spain application, just to see if I’d land this job.
Posted by:True Religion Outlet |August 21, 2011 at 11:47 PM Verify your Comment Previewing your CommentPosted by: |
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