Who Says Women Can't Match Men?

Who says women can't match men? At Fosetter, our ginseng and dried-goods shop in Montreal's Chinatown, Carmen, the owner, has a quick answer.

"Even our dog is a girl."

Her name is Money, and you may well meet her in the shop. The rest of the team follows the same rule.

"Our whole company, top to bottom, is all women. From their twenties to their seventies, we have them all. We're a shop held up by women. Women here do the work of men."

On the morning we filmed, before the shop opened, Carmen was out front herself, mopping the doorstep and washing the glass beside our door at number 78.

A window, a daughter, and a summer on the street

Part of the shop today is a little tea window facing the street. It started with Carmen and her daughter.

"The first year, nobody knew if we could make money, or if we could keep going. So I told my daughter, we'll just do it, OK? Do it well first, then put more in."

"In that first year there was no window here. Later we made a little bit of money, and then we opened up this window."

"The first summer, my daughter was out on the street, with a young man helping us sell herbal tea and American ginseng tea. Right on the street. It was pretty tiring, out in the wind and the sun."

"And now, every year, we sell herbal tea and American ginseng tea right here."

Carmen tells more about how the tea window came about, and how she went from restaurants to ginseng, in I started selling popsicles at seven. If you'd rather brew at home, our teas are in the herbal tea collection.

The window is open at 78 Rue De La Gauchetière Ouest. Come say hi to the women of Fosetter, and to Money.