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Electrical appliances stores beef up promotional packs
Electrical appliances stores released many promotional packs with big discount in the first two months of the year in an effort to capture more market shares, which are getting much smaller amid debuts of many new stores.
Many electrical appliances stores announced they reduced prices of many items in an effort to sell them out by April 30th. They will be replaced with the same items in new shipments, which will have higher prices due to a stronger US dollar.
The price reduction, however, was just a marketing trick to lure shoppers as the actual value of the items has never been revealed, experts said.
“There is a gap of selling prices of the same item at different stores,” said a director of a HCMC-based electrical appliances store, who wanted to be unnamed.
“For example, furniture and electrical appliances store Cho Lon in District 5 reduced the price of an Acer laptop with the model number of AS4733Z by 11 percent to VND7.99 million (US$399.5).
“Mobile phone distributor Vien Thong A offers the same item with the price of VND8.49 million ($425.5), and computer store Nguyen Kim Chinh Nhan sell at VND8.99 million.”
Almost all items offered at electrical appliances store in the city have two prices – listing price and promotional one – which is lower than the former.
Prices of electrical appliances also surge on the stronger dollar as most of them are imported from abroad.
A Hewlett Packard laptop modeled Pavilion dv3-2000 used to be sold at the price of around VND12.4 million ($620), but now it costs VND14.6 million. With the previous foreign exchange rate, the new price should have been VND13.6 million only.
Many stores announced big promotional packs on the Woman Day on March 3rd, cutting prices of many items. However, many customers complaint that it was not easy to buy items with special prices.
Electrical appliances store De Nhat Phan Khang announced they would offer 100 Nokia mobile phones modeled 1280, 100 Panka DVD players, 100 Blacker juicers modeled 280CN with the special price of VND83,000 for each on the Woman Day.
Only women customers, who are 18 years old or more and have birthday of March 3rd, will be allowed to buy one among those items with the special price.
Le Thi Thu of Binh Thanh District said she missed a discount program at electrical appliances store Tu Trinh in Go Vap District, which was announced just one day before she came to the store.
Shoppers also complaint most of the discount items was fragile and had no insurance. Others disclosed discount items were either error ones or second-handed. A juicer discounted 50 percent to VND243,000 ($12.15) works properly around two months.
An assistant manager of a big store in downtown disclosed no one could supervise the pricing at electrical appliances stores due to the volatile imported price.
Do Linh – Vu Minh
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