Alice Pung's Parents Close Springvale Shop After 35 Years of Resilience
On the final day of packing, Alice Pung's parents prepared to close their Betta electrical store in Springvale, marking the end of an era that spanned almost 35 years. The shop, a cornerstone of their lives, was not just a business but a symbol of survival and redemption for survivors of the killing fields and Mao's China.
A Shop Packed with Memories and Curiosities
As they boxed up items, the family unearthed a treasure trove of memories. Beyond typical appliances like toasters and air fryers, they found cloth-covered shopping trolleys, wooden-handled umbrellas priced at a bargain $10, and pink glitter pencil cases bought during a post-Christmas Kmart sale. These curiosities reflected the unique character of their store, which stood out from regular Betta outlets.
Alice's mother, a top salesperson despite not being able to read or write in English, had invested in the shop after years of outworking in their cramped garage, making jewellery and handling dangerous chemicals like potassium cyanide. For nearly 15 years, she sold modern technological marvels along Springvale Road, embodying resilience and determination.
Springvale: A Vision of Adult Life
Springvale, with its underground tunnel for crossing the road, $2 bánh mì stores, and shops selling diamante-encrusted formal dresses in majestic hues of emerald, purple, and navy blue, represented Alice's childhood vision of adult life. She imagined delicious lunch breaks between selling white and brown goods to diverse customers, followed by evenings of dressing up for excitement.
However, the reality was different. Her parents rarely went anywhere; the shop was their entire life, and it was enough. Memories included a short-lived McDonald's when Alice was 16, but her father still preferred chicken rice and pho restaurants for lunch. The area also featured bubble tea shops, a library where Alice wrote parts of her first book, and a wet market where mangoes sold for a dollar a kilo at the end of the day.
Unearthing Decades of Inventory
On the last day, the family discovered relics from past decades: Sony Walkman cases, cassette holders, a Nintendo Game Boy cassette (Kirby's Dream World), and a bag of polar fleece rags from when Alice's aunty worked sewing. Other finds included a CD player designed to look like a vintage 1920s radio, gadgets to repel mosquitoes and rats, battery-operated "face massagers" displayed with Philishave razors, and even a boxed mermaid Barbie from the 1990s, saved for future grandchildren.
In the electrical appliance retail world, if Harvey Norman stores are sleek thoroughbreds and the Good Guys are affable blue heelers, then Betta electricals and Retravisions are like beloved long-living mutts: resilient, cherished, and sustained by local communities, offering a mixture of everything.
The End of an Era and a New Beginning
Friends remarked, "It's really the end of an era," as Alice saw an inventory of her parents', aunty, and uncle's lives. Memories flooded back: the tiny kitchen upstairs amid boxes of irons and popcorn makers, where they hastily ate if customers were downstairs; the little window where they watched a neat south Asian man sleeping atop hard-rubbish skip bins, carefully folding his blanket and disappearing during the day; and trips her two-year-old daughter made every Monday with her grandparents, enjoying an endless supply of toys and 15 televisions to watch at once.
When asked about retirement, Alice's mother scoffed, "No way. We're all just going to work in the Footscray shop now." At Footscray Betta, Aunty Kieu and David were still going strong. Alice's father, in his mid-70s, could still calculate the horsepower needed for air conditioners based on room size, and Uncle Fang worked right up to his 80s. For these survivors, denied modern medicine and the wonders of electricity in their past, the shop was not just their existence—it was the entirety of their new lives, a second chance at redemption.
Alice's mother added, "Footscray's closer to home. Less of a drive. And you'll be able to visit us more often." Alice Pung is an award-winning author, artist-in-residence at the University of Melbourne's Janet Clarke Hall, and an adjunct professor at RMIT University.
