Supermarkets outperform traditional markets

Traditional markets in HCMC are under the menace of shrinking shares as they were outperformed by modern stores like supermarkets during the Tet holiday, as seen in the fast-growing purchasing power at such facilities, officials said at a review on Tuesday.

The purchasing power of most traditional markets in HCMC during the Lunar New Year contracted by 10% compared to the last Tet while revenue at supermarkets in the city increased by 40% to 50% on the year-ago period, the city government said in a report.

Big promotion programs at supermarkets have attracted more shoppers to buy goods there instead of traditional markets, the city government said.

Despite an upsurge in the purchasing power during Tet, traders in the city still managed to provide enough goods with stable prices to customers.

Quach To Dung, deputy director of the city’s Department of Industry and Trade, said that supermarkets are playing an important role, and contributing more to stabilizing prices.

“The case of higher prices for vegetable and fruit from the first to the third day of Tet is an example. Prices skyrocketed when supermarkets stopped trading for Tet but prices gradually fell down these days because such stores were reopened to offer more choices for shoppers,” she said in the meeting to review social activities of the city for Tet 2010. The meeting was held by the city’s People’s Committee.

Nguyen Thanh Tai, vice chairman of the city, said that this Tet HCMC was providing enough goods to all the population as well as keeping prices more stable than in the past.

“We have been able to do well because all activities to prepare for Tet 2010 had been done earlier,” he said in the meeting.

Before Tet, the city government disbursed loans of over VND422 billion without interest to 13 important traders to reserve goods for Tet. Such companies were tasked with keeping prices stable for eight groups of essential goods. Revenue at such trading companies increased by around 30% to 40% during Tet, he said.

Regarding other social activities for Tet, Tai said that the city government had spent over VND300 billion for the poor and policy people to help them enjoy the holiday. “But, the real budget was higher because all of the 24 districts in the city have launched their own activities to help poor people to welcome Tet,” he said.

The city government also reported that companies in the city have done well to give Tet bonuses to workers.

Among local entrepreneurs, companies in the jewelry, construction, oil and gas, and hotel sectors gave higher bonus to workers than others, averaging out at VND3.3 to 6 million per worker, with the highest bonus being VND176 million.

The average bonus for foreign-invested companies was around VND2 million, with the highest recorded in the banking and financial sector at VND209 million.

In industrial parks and the export processing zones, the average bonus was VND1.6 million for workers of local companies, and VND1.95 million for workers of foreign-invested companies.

VietNamNet/SGT

Tags: Vietnam retail market, Vietnam supermarkets, Vietnam traditional markets