Hanoi supermarkets win on “Golden Sale Promotion Day” | Look At Vietnam

LookAtVietnam – Supermarkets in Hanoi witnessed a chaotic day on November 15, when Hanoians flocked there to purchase goods on a promotional day.

At Big C, 2,000 customers reportedly waited in front of the supermarket before 8 am. The road outside the supermarket was a constant traffic jam and the motorbike parking area stayed full. VnExpress reporters noted that they could see many cars with strange plate numbers from other provinces.

Inside the supermarket, there were so many visitors that the escalator stopped working because of overloading. Visitors had to move step by step at stalls.

Kim Hanh, a housewife from Ha Dong, left home at 9 am, but she could not reach the second floor of the supermarket until 11 am because of traffic. Hanh still could not shop at 11 am because of too many other customers. She and her son left for lunch and returned in the afternoon, when many visitors had left already.

The same situation could be seen at many other supermarkets. Pico Plaza was full of visitors from 7:30am onward.

The “Golden Sale Promotion Day” on November 15 was the focus of a promotional month initiated by Hanoi City, under which customers have been promised to enjoy 30-50 percent price reductions at big supermarkets like Metro, Viet Long, Fivimart, Big C and Nguyen Kim Shopping Centre.

In November 2009 as a whole, customers can purchase goods with discounts of 15-50 percent at nearly 1,000 sale points across the city.

Ngo Thanh Dat, Head of the Marketing Division for Pico Plaza, said that Pico had to use all officers it had to serve clients while the supermarket was overcrowded.

The promotion really helped heat up November, because people delayed purchases until the “golden day,” so as to enjoy the hefty discount rates of 30-50 percent.

At supermarkets, discounts have been offered for a wide range of products, including food, drink, consumer goods, apparel, footwear and electronics. Electronics like digital cameras have discounts of up to 50 percent.

Dat said that digital cameras, washing machines and LCD TVs are the best sellers. He said that the sales of LCD TVs were five times more than on an ordinary day. Pico had sales of 12 billion dong just from yesterday morning.

“The number of visitors was four times bigger than normal,” Dat said, adding that a lot of visitors had to park motorbikes outside the supermarket, because its parking capacity of 3,000-4,000 motorbikes was not enough.

Big C’s Deputy Director Nguyen Thai Dung said that the number of visitors was twice as on previous weekends and triple ordinary days.

In general, supermarkets expects to sell 150 billion dong worth of goods during the promotion month, double previous months. On November 15, the price discounts of 30-50 percent were offered for 20 percent of displayed goods.

VietNamNet/VNE

Report: Lotte to invest $5 bln in Vietnam retail

South Korean conglomerate Lotte Group will invest $5 billion in the next 15 years to develop 30 supermarkets in Vietnam to tap the Southeast Asian country's fast-growing retail market, state media reported Thursday.
The company opened its first Lotte Mart supermarket in Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday with an investment of $75 million, the Youth newspaper quoted Dao Thi Minh Van, deputy general manager of Lotte Vietnam, a Lotte Group subsidiary, as saying.
Lotte will invest in four more retail outlets in the southern commercial hub and 10 others in the capital Hanoi, the northern port city of Haiphong, the central city of Danang and the southern Mekong Delta city of Can Tho in coming years, Van was quoted as saying.
Lotte Vietnam will eventually have 30 supermarkets in Vietnam with a total investment of $5 billion by 2024, Van said.
U.S. based management consulting firm A.T. Kearney said in June that Vietnam had ended India's three-year reign as the most attractive emerging market destination for retail investment.
Vietnam with a population of 86 million has sustained GDP growth of at least 7 percent annually over the past decade.
The country's retail market reached $52 billion in the first 11 months of this year, posting an increase of 31 percent against the same period of last year, according to government figures.
German Metro, French Big C and Malaysia-based Parkson have opened retail outlets in Vietnam.