By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Customers have vented their outrage after Dandenong Market pulled down the shutters on a 90-year-old family business.
Choy’s Chinese Cuisine is facing a legal battle to continue serving handmade spring rolls and dim sims to generations of loyal customers.
Dandenong Market management has refused to renew the stall’s lease, which expired on 30 June.
First thing on Friday 1 July, the roll-a-door was down and padlocked – with a written notice on the door ordering owner Cindy Choy to “quit the premises”.
In defiance, the owners cut the locks and fired up the woks for their lunch-time customers.
In the days before, Ms Choy was buoyed by legal advice that she was entitled to six months’ reprieve.
But at 12.30pm, Dandenong Market managers confronted Ms Choy’s husband Sam Shen at the stall, telling him he was trespassing and had no right to be there.
Shocked customer Lynne West, 67, told Star Journal that she was “terribly upset” at the market’s move.
Even as a student 60 years ago, she fondly remembered Ms Choy’s uncle who started up the business in the 1930s.
“For people that have had the business for so long, let’s support them. Not close them down.
“Life’s hard enough as it is.
“The market should be thanking them for being at the market for so long.”
Meanwhile, “devastated” customer Dee Crosby said many were shaking their heads and signing a petition to save the business.
She loved Ms Choy and husband Sam Shen for their “fantastic quality” food and “the people that they are”.
“Sam is just a lovely human being. He doesn’t deserve to be treated like this.
“They’re genuine, they’re hard-working, they’ve been real features of the market.”
Ms Crosby said she remembered Ms Choy’s uncle cooking dim sims in what is now the market’s deli section.
He was a trail-blazer when “there weren’t many Asian traders in the market”. He was one that introduced customers to “multicultural” food.
“I’m just pleading to the market to let (the stall) remain open into the future.
“I don’t know what the legalities are. But it just seems very unfair – this is their livelihood. We just want them to stay open.”
Dandenong Market Pty Ltd won’t comment on the reasons for not renewing the lease – a decision communicated to Ms Choy six months ago.
According to Ms Choy, no reason was given for what is effectively her eviction – even during a face-to-face meeting with the market’s outgoing manager Jennifer Hibbs.
As recently as 2018, the couple complied with the market’s edict to buy $20,000 on a new stall fit-out, Ms Choy says.
Even during Covid’s lean times, they never missed paying the required rent. And at the same time, they gave away meals to struggling customers.
The market business was started by Ms Choy’s uncle in the early 1930’s. Ms Choy started helping as a student in 1981 before later taking it over.
What she loves most about her work is the customers she’s known for up to 40 years.
“Our customers keep coming back often travelling a long way,” Ms Choy says.
“We see them as our extended family. We know most of them by name, we see them as children and as they grow up to be mothers.”
In a statement last month, Dandenong Market Pty Ltd stated it exercised its right not to offer a new lease to Ms Choy.
“DMPL has met with Ms Choy and her representative to provide further clarity around its decision.
“The specifics of the arrangement with the tenant are confidential.
“Because every commercial lease is unique, there are specific terms of the lease which are considered commercial-in-confidence.
“It is for these reasons that DMPL will not be commenting further.”
