Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Describes goods, products, or services that are unsellable or unmarketable due to a complete lack of customers or demand. It implies a stagnant, slow, or dead market situation.
   • Can describe a business or commercial activity that is experiencing a severe slump or period of poor sales.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Mặt hàng này đang rất ế ẩm. (This product line is very unsellable.)
  • Cửa hàng ế ẩm khách hàng. (The store has no customers.)
  • Mùa mưa, vé xem phim thường ế ẩm. (During the rainy season, movie tickets often go unsold.)

Advanced Usage

• The term often carries a stronger connotation than just "ế" (slow-selling), emphasizing a prolonged state of stagnation and difficulty in finding any buyers.
• It can be used metaphorically in informal contexts to describe a person who is unpopular or cannot find a partner.
  • Anh chàng đó mãi vẫn ế ẩm. (That guy remains perpetually single/unwanted.)

Variants and Related Words

• Ế (adj): To be unsold, to be slow-selling. A simpler, more general term.
  • Hoa quả ế hàng. (The fruit is not selling.)

Synonyms

• Unmarketable: Not able to be sold or marketed.
• Unsellable: Incapable of being sold.
• Slow-moving: Selling very slowly (less severe than "ế ẩm").

Related Idioms

• Ế ẩm như chạch: (To be as unsellable as a loach) – An idiom emphasizing extreme difficulty in selling.
  • Mở tiệm bánh ở đây thì ế ẩm như chạch. (Opening a bakery here would mean business is dead.)

1. Unable to find customers; unmarketable