A Melbourne bakery found TikTok fame, before trolls began harassing its young staff. How the owners responded went viral

"Lawrence Du knew instinctively that his parents' bakery had the potential to pop off on social media. Shaun Du and Cindy Vuong opened Montmorency Bakehouse on the fringe of Melbourne's east in 2003, after migrating to Australia from Vietnam. They started selling pillowy, coconut-dusted lamingtons, vanilla slices, chunky steak pies and crusty loaves of bread alongside crispy banh mi and rice paper rolls, creating a traditional country-style Australian bakery with a Vietnamese twist."

"Lawrence, 28, who runs his own social media marketing company, had grown up with the bakery and wanted to share stories of his parents' hard work, all the love and care that they pour into their business, he tells Guardian Australia. Shaun and Cindy had a limited understanding of what their son wanted to do. But after costs rose with inflation and competition in the area increased, they finally relented."

"I knew that the videos were going to do well, but I didn't expect them to do this well, Lawrence says. Lawrence leaned into his parents' unpolished charm: Cindy is sweet and friendly and struggles to remember her lines, a neat dramatic foil to Shaun's sardonic sense of humour. The videos are a wholesome and funny behind-the-scenes look at the couple, the workings of the bakery and the food they sell."

"Their first TikTok video appeared last year. It was an instant success. It was viewed more than 100,000 times on that platform and another 50,000 times on Instagram, and the audience only seemed to expand. And the business grew. Cindy was recognised while out shopping. People started making long journeys just to taste their goods including one man who drove from Adelaide. The bakery's young staff mostly high school and university students also got involved, hosting and appearing in videos."

Shaun Du and Cindy Vuong opened Montmorency Bakehouse on Melbourne's eastern fringe in 2003 after migrating from Vietnam. The bakery combines traditional country-style Australian pastries, such as lamingtons, vanilla slices, steak pies and crusty loaves, with Vietnamese items like crispy banh mi and rice paper rolls. Their son, Lawrence Du, who runs a social media marketing company, created candid videos that highlighted his parents' unpolished charm and the bakery's behind-the-scenes life. The first TikTok post exceeded 100,000 views and another 50,000 on Instagram, prompting wider recognition, longer customer journeys, increased business and staff participation in videos.

Read at www.theguardian.com