Good planning essential

By Vatapuia Maiava and Ilia L Likou 17 September 2016, 12:00AM

Traveling to and from Savai’i can be a tiring journey. And when Samoans get tired, we often turn to the comfort of food.

So strategically positioning a food stall at the entrance of the Mulifanua wharf is a pretty smart move providing travelers a decent meal.

Spotted yesterday by the Village Voice, Ropeti Ropeti, 25, from the village of Samatau was working hard preparing food for those passing by.

And according to him, life in the rural area and business was going great.

“Life here is great, there aren’t many problems out here for us,” he said.

“This actually my sister’s shop and we help out here a lot. This is very good money for the family and we make a lot of profit, a lot of customers from the wharf stop by.

“We serve chop suey, Taro, lamb curry, fried chicken, sausages and a few other food products here at our small tent restaurant.”

According to Ropeti, the only issue with their stall is jealous people.

“The only issue we have is those people who are jealous of our success,” he said.

“A great example is a lady that works at a shop in the wharf came by last night to make a complaint, but we have already gotten a license to run this little food stall.

“The government came by and took a few pictures and then approved our business; so that’s the only problem here, jealous shops nearby.”

The little stall also does deliveries which help a lot with sales.

“With our business we also do little deliveries,” Ropeti said.

“This business is developing fast and we are looking at ways of improving it even more. But right now we are doing really well especially with our delivery system.”

But as expected, it is a lot of work to keep the business booming.

“We start preparing our shop before 6am every day,” Ropeti said.

“With the pork buns, we try and make it a little earlier so it will be ready by the time we open up. We do the same with the other food items we sell.

“It’s not easy but it works and makes a lot of money for us.”

Even though it’s a lot of hard work, Ropeti says that hard work is the key to success.

“If you work really hard then taking care of your family is easy,” he said.

“This can be said about almost everything in life. Hard work is always key; we do so much in order to look after our family.

“We also have a store at Samatau.”

By Vatapuia Maiava and Ilia L Likou 17 September 2016, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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