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In a month’s time, 22-year-old Hongkonger Tony Lam Chun-ho will be graduating from Polytechnic University with a degree in business administration. But instead of following his peers into a professional career, he is choosing to fight for the legacy of his family’s six-decade-old grocery store. Lam Kee Grocery Shop is one of only a handful of small businesses left in an area of the old Kowloon City neighbourhood facing imminent redevelopment, and the Gen Z Hongkonger is pulling out all the stops to keep the business alive. “Lam Kee has been a part of my life from childhood to adulthood. If it suddenly disappears, I would feel remorse, so I want to keep it going,” he said. “Also, Lam Kee has been in Kowloon City for over 60 years, existing in many neighbours’ memories. I believe if Lam Kee is gone someday, the neighbours will feel very sad.” Lam Kee was started by Lam’s late grandfather as a modest street stall in the 1960s in the old Kowloon City neighbourhood, affectionately referred to as “Little Chiu Chow” and “Little Thailand” owing to its sizeable Teochew and Thai communities. Having already been forced to move once due to redevelopment, the store reopened at its current premises on Nga Tsin Long Road in 2012. Lam recalled that as a child, he would often help out around the store in any way he could – even if it was just counting cash behind the counter or helping his father with “security”, keeping watch for potential shoplifters. Lam said that he initially started helping around the shop to lessen the burden on his parents as they grew older. But the moment the family received the Urban Renewal Authority’s (URA) redevelopment notice, his mindset shifted towards finding ways to preserve his “second home”. Expected to be completed by 2038, the area around Nga Tsin Wai Road and Carpenter Road, where Lam Kee is located, is earmarked for redevelopment into a government office and market, as well as new residential flats to replace the current old tenement buildings. Earlier this month, Lam’s father signed a contract with the URA that allows the store to remain at its current location for at least five more years, while also guaranteeing a new location at the end of the redevelopment. But Lam said his family worried their traditional grocery store might not survive with the expected higher rents, and declining footfall was already taking a toll on the business. On a recent walk through the neighbourhood with the Post, Lam pointed out that many buildings and street shops, including some that once relied on his family’s store for supplies, had already been cleared out. Along Nam Kok Road, just one block over from the grocery store, the Post observed that almost all the shops had shut down, with posters on the shutters indicating they had been reclaimed for redevelopment by the URA. “Recent difficulties, like the redevelopment plan, have caused the unique character of the street to disappear,” Lam said. “Some tourists might not even think about coming to Kowloon City to shop, so the foot traffic on the street has gradually decreased, making business harder.” Lam has been using the knowledge acquired through his studies to modernise and preserve the shop. Last year, he launched a social media page for the store on Instagram, which has garnered over 5,000 followers. As he sought to tap into the changing consumption patterns of Hongkongers, he also created a website with a digital storefront while listing Lam Kee’s products on online retailer HKTV Mall. Lam’s father, 59-year-old Lam Lap-wah, said he did not take Tony’s efforts very seriously at first, but became more supportive after seeing how dedicated his son was to revitalising the family business. Nonetheless, the elder Lam was not confident the business would last another decade, even with his son’s efforts, because of the evolving shopping habits of consumers. “If Tony can bring new methods and sustain the shop in a more modern way, I support it,” he said. “But it’s also OK if one day he fails and has to find another job.” Despite the difficulties, the younger Lam said he remained hopeful about sustaining his family’s brand into the future, even if it meant existing only as an online retailer. He was grateful the store still had at least another five years at its current location before they were potentially forced out. Redevelopment, he acknowledged, came with both positive and negative aspects, and “if the old doesn’t go, the new won’t come”. “In the end, Kowloon City is an old and distinctive district,” he said. “There is a need to continue preserving some of Hong Kong’s unique places. The government must see how it can preserve the old characteristics while bringing in some new elements.”
