The Mid-Autumn Festival Stall Decision
A Chinese-Australian community association in Melbourne plans a Mid-Autumn Festival street stall. The committee has 6 members, a budget of $600, and one weekend to prepare. Two proposals are on the table. Proposal A: sell mooncakes bought wholesale at $4 each, sell at $8, and expect to sell 120. Proposal B: run a free lantern-making workshop for children, buy materials for $300, and ask for donations. Last year's mooncake stall sold 90 of 100 cakes and the leftover 10 were thrown out. A committee member warns that a nearby bakery sells mooncakes for $6, and another notes that the association's membership is ageing and few young families attend. The committee must also decide whether to advertise in Mandarin only or bilingually.
1. Compare the two proposals financially and in terms of community goals, then recommend one.
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Proposal A (mooncakes): buying 120 at $4 costs $480, leaving $120 of the $600 budget. Selling all 120 at $8 raises $960, a profit of $480. But last year 10% went unsold, and a nearby bakery undercuts at $6, so 120 is optimistic. A cautious estimate of 100 sales gives $800 revenue and $320 profit.
Proposal B (workshop): $300 materials, remaining $300 as buffer; donations are unpredictable but the workshop builds engagement with young families - exactly the group the association says is missing.
A sound judgement is a hybrid: buy a smaller mooncake batch (e.g. 80, costing $320) to limit waste risk, and run a modest lantern activity with the remaining budget. This manages financial risk while addressing the ageing-membership problem. Pure profit-maximising (Proposal A at full scale) ignores the undercutting bakery and last year's waste.
2. Recommend how the stall should be advertised and justify the language choice.
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Bilingual advertising is the stronger choice, for three reasons:
- Audience: the association wants to attract young families, many of whom may be English-dominant or mixed-language households. A Mandarin-only poster excludes them.
- Public setting: a street stall in Melbourne reaches passers-by who do not read Chinese; bilingual signage turns foot traffic into visitors.
- Inclusion within the community: Cantonese and other-variety speakers in the association should not be assumed to read Mandarin.
A practical split: Mandarin (with English) for the main poster, English for the children's workshop sign-up, and simple visual cues (lantern images, prices) that work regardless of language. The committee should avoid treating 'Chinese community' as monolingual.