Minnesota is home to the second-largest Hmong population in the United States.
Car dealerships will try almost anything to get customers to their showroom floors and, for this Minnesota Toyota dealership, their salespeople think a 100 pound bag of rice might do the trick.
A mailer from a Toyota dealership in Burnsville, MN is making the rounds on social media announcing that their salespeople, Kevin and Brian Xiong, are offering a 100 pound bag of rice to anyone who buys a new or used car from their 300+ inventory.
Check out the image below as well as a Facebook post from Kevin Xiong announcing the promotion.
Forget 0% APR…
— Car Dealership Guy (@GuyDealership) February 28, 2024
Buy a Toyota and get a free 100 lbs bag of rice. pic.twitter.com/GqcL6Rtmpg
Minnesota is home to the second-largest population of Hmong, a distinct Southeast Asian ethnic group without their own independent nation state who’ve found their new home in various communities around the world.
Like almost all Asian and Southeast Asian communities, rice is a staple, often eaten at dinner, if not every meal.
Referencing various local Asian grocers in the United States, a 50-lb bag of Three Ladies Brand Jasmine Rice from Thailand, the advertised brand you’ll get from Burnsville, Toyota, costs about $65.
So, 100 pounds of 3 Ladies Brand rice is a roughly $130 value.
In my opinion, $130 worth of anything isn’t enough to sway a buyer one way or the other on pulling a trigger on a car.
What I think the value of this bag of rice is the signal that it sends to the Hmong community.
“We’re Hmong salespersons located in the heart of the Hmong community, we’re here to serve you, and we know this 100 pound bag of rice will go a long way for you,” is what I imagine this bag of rice promo says.
This promotion will undoubtedly sway Toyota shoppers in the Hmong community to give their business to these fine gentlemen.
And for that, this promotion has some value.
Their advertisement notes this promo ends May 31, 2024.
So, if you’re in the Burnsville, MN area, are Hmong, and are in the market for a new or used Toyota, you know where to go.
