Supermarkets baulk at high supplier prices

Several supermarkets in HCM City have refused to accept the price of various suppliers, leaving market stalls temporarily empty.

Customers shopping at the Big C Supermarket Mien Dong in District 10 on Tuesday could see signs that read “Big C out of products because of supplier prices” at several stalls selling cookies.

Similarly, some stalls selling milk, confectionary and cosmetic products were also empty.

A notice board saying that Big C was trying to negotiate stable prices with suppliers was placed at the supermarket entrance.

Duong Thi Quynh Trang, director of public relations for the French-owned supermarket chain, said producers and suppliers, and not the supermarket, could decide to increase or decrease the price.

“Big C plays a role as a distributor in negotiating with suppliers so we can have reasonable prices for customers,” Trang added.

The supermarket said it had to carefully consider requests to hike prices and would stop selling several goods if it could not reach agreements with suppliers.

“The supermarket hopes customers can find substitutes for the 50,000 kinds of available goods,” Trang said.

An employee at the supermarket’s food counter said prices for food had risen more than those for other products.

Suppliers had repeatedly asked the supermarket to hike prices, causing the supermarket to consider changing prices, he said, adding that the supermarket had 360 suppliers for food. The Citimart supermarket chain owned by HCM City–based Dong Hung Co has also said it faced a similar situation.

Ngo Van Hai, deputy director of Citimart, said several suppliers had asked for additional money on previously supplied goods.

They have even asked to take back goods so that they could return them and sell them at a higher prices.

“All these unreasonable requests of suppliers will be rejected,” Hai said. “Citimart sells goods that are acceptable in price and quality.”

“It has tie-in agreements with suppliers. If the prices are too high and the goods cannot be sold, the supermarket will return the goods to suppliers.” — VNS

Tags: Vietnam retail market, Vietnam supermarkets