Four years have passed since Margarida Vila-Nova and Ivo Ferreira decided to add a new title to their lives as actors and filmmakers. Establishing a “Portuguese Corner Shop” (Mercearia Portuguesa) in Macau seemed like an odd choice to most of their friends and family, but the appeal of this “life project” was bigger than any fear.
Margarida Vila-Nova has no hesitation in classifying the first four years as “very positive” ones.
“This is not only in terms of the growth in visitors and sales […] but also in terms of the image of the shop, which has been featured by its specificity in every part of the world, from the US to Japan,” explained Margarida Vila-Nova.
As they told the Times, the shop’s biggest group of costumers, around 80 percent, are tourists – tourists who, in the shop-owners’ opinion, are different to the ones seen in many other parts of the city. “These are tourists with a special profile. They search for diversity and for a more cultural kind of tourism that is not necessarily gaming tourism.” Initially these tourists started to come to us from Hong Kong, but nowadays Japan, Singapore, Korea, and Taiwan make up the majority of visitors to this shop.
“For us, these four years were also four years of learning. None of us [Margarida and husband, Ivo] had any experience in dealing with this kind of business before, so it was an interesting learning process,” Margarida says.
Regarding the larger difficulties, the shop-owner singles out the import-related procedures, since they “work with a wide range of small-batch producers and suppliers (over 80 in total), and it is very difficult to coordinate all of them to have the product ready to be shipped at the same time in one shipping container.”
There are also other logistical aspects relating to the fact that the shop sells a wide range of seasonal products, so from expiry dates, to shipping time, to product variety, there are many things to take into consideration, she mentioned.
“There is also special consideration given to the holiday periods, and the products that are of special interest and commonly requested during these seasons,” the owner added.
The secret to success lies in the fact that, from the start, the business model was built upon something that the owners really wanted to develop, regardless of of the difficulties they would encounter. “It is a life project more than it is a business. You really need to like doing a lot of this to overcome problems, to continue to work and to have new ideas.”
For the near future, Margarida Vila-Nova revealed that she is planning a new project with the “Portuguese Corner Shop” as a starting point. So far they are looking at launching the new endeavour in the middle of 2016. For now, the only information available is that it will be a “tasting space” where visitors will be able to try a wide range of “gourmet” delicacies coming exclusively from Portugal and from the shop’s very wide range of suppliers.
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