Egg Selling Experience

Selling eggs may just be an ordinary thing in the eyes of villagers but it can be an exciting learning experience for the students from Guan Ai Primary School. Five of our students, Sara Lam and I (Principal Sun) went to the marketplace as an out-of-school educational experience to sell the eggs from the chickens that students have been raising in their extracurricular elective class. Half of our eggs were green, which were apparently rare and drew excitement from the teachers and other villagers. The students did research on them and wrote the information on a piece of paper for potential customers.

Students and their eggs attract attention at the market.

As we entered the market, we were dazzled by the huge variety of delicious snacks that made our mouths water. We continued to walk around the market searching for a place where people sell eggs. First, we wanted to know what the going rate for eggs was. Second, we wanted to find a suitable place to set up shop. At last, we found an old lady by the market exit with approximately 5 to 6 catties of eggs for $5 RMB/catty. However, we thought we might cause too much attention so it was best not to set up right next to the old lady and we went to look for a site elsewhere. At last, we found a more crowded area and began our business.

The students put the box of eggs on the ground with the information sheet they had prepared earlier and began looking for customers. At first the students were a little shy but with our encouragement , they started to take the initiative. However, people seemed to have  doubts about the origin of our eggs and hesitated to buy. Some were concerned that the students were out of school selling eggs in a marketplace. To clarify their doubts, Sara quickly bought a marker and wrote a sign that explained how the students had raised chickens in their elective class.

While the students were diligently trying to sell eggs, a lady came up and told us that people were going to work during that time. It was then we realized that despite the fact that many people were out on the street, a majority of them were rushing to work. They wouldn’t pay much attention to us.

At first, a few people was interested in our eggs but refused to buy because they thought it was too expensive. Therefore, we gradually lowered our price from $10 RMB/catty to $5 RMB/catty. Eventually, we had our first customer, who bought 2 catties of the green eggs.

After we had our first customer, more customers continued to come. After a short period of time, the reminder of the green eggs was sold to the lady selling snacks nearby. She said she had seen on TV that green eggs have high nutritional value.

A little incident almost occurred as one of the students began to weight eggs using a balance that was not working so well. Dong! I thought one of the eggs had dropped and cracked. However, when I looked down, it was just the weights that fell on the floor. It gave me a fright.

After a while, our first customer came back and asked if we had tasted our eggs. We were worried that he might be complaining that our eggs were too old or rotten. However, he took out one of our eggs—now cooked– and showed us its yolk, which was twice the size of a normal one. He then advised us to do more research on our product before selling. We should have found out what was different between our eggs and other eggs so that we are more convincing.

 
The yolk of our egg. 

With 3 catties remaining, we wanted to go back to school as it was getting late. We decided to move to a path that people who go grocery shop must pass. Immediately, we were surrounded by a crowd big enough to block the road. We were then approached by a man, who asked us to move as we were causing inconvenience to others. Luckily, all our eggs quickly sold before he had to scold us again. .

This exciting egg selling experience ended with a discussion in the car on the way back to the school.

Reflection: People have a lot of different views about this egg selling experience. Some think it may slow down the student’s progress in school work. Some people think that they are being manipulated for the purpose of serving adults’ self interest or that this activity is purely for making money. There are people who think it is beneficial for the students to have such experiences and some even gave us advice. Although we did not sell the eggs for a high price, the students learnt a lot from this experience. They went from being shy to being more active and taking the initiative. Our preparation was not enough and the students did not quite know how to sell. Much training and knowledge is required to become a real businessperson.