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HCM City: Fast food shops mushrooming
HCM City, a busy commercial hub, has been witnessing fast food shops mushrooming in the last few months. The ‘coverage’ of the fast food shops, according to local residents, is just second dense to the eyeglass shop network.
The westerners’ life
Fast food shops are located mostly at trade centres, supermarts and modern urban areas, like Phu My Hung, at crossroads, or big roads.
Within a radius of one kilometer from the city’s post office, there are no less than thirty fast food shops, including KFC, Lotteria, Jollibee, and Chicken Town.
On the 500 metre stretch of Nguyen Thi Nghia – Nguyen Thai Hoc road alone, three fast food shops have sprouted up. Similarly, the three shops on Nguyen Dinh Chieu are also just several hundred metres from each other. All of them have a great number of customers, especially on weekends.
The main customers of fast food are office employees, and young families with medium or above average income (VND 5 million/person/month). An employee of the fast food shop on Le Lai Street in district 1 HCM City said that the shop receives mostly teen customers from well off families. The customers sometimes go to fast food shops not because they really want the food here, but just show that they are connoisseurs.
Going to fastfood to… relax?
Fast food shops in Vietnam have the westerners’ life, from the design of the shops, to the way of serving, and the food that is served. However, fast food in Vietnam is not completely referred to as ‘fast food.’
The menu in fast food restaurants includes a narrow range of dishes, including the ones made from chicken, hamburgers, and fried potatoes. Therefore, regular customers cannot order a lot of dishes.
Pham Cong Nhat, who lives in district 3, HCM City, said that he and his friends sometimes go to eat fast food, but not regularly. “I would be tired of fast food if I ate it more regularly,” he said, adding that if he wants delicious dishes or invites friends to parties, he would not choose fast food.
Huong Giang, who lives in district 1, a newspaper employee, said that she goes to eat fast food regularly, not just because she wants to enjoy the food here, but also because she can enjoy the good service.
Bringing children to eat fast food, parents feel convenient because their children can have meals and play at the same time.
Hoang Hiep, Communication Director of Jollibee, said that in other countries, fast food networks have been developing well partially because of the consumption and traveling habit of foreigners. As they travel mainly by bus, metro, or car, they can bring fast food with themselves on the way. Meanwhile, in Vietnam, people travel on motorbikes, therefore, it is impossible to enjoy fast food in the way foreigners do.
In fact, Vietnamese people have not become familiar to fast food, while they still prefer traditional meals like steam glutinous rice and noodle soup.
Viet Hoa
vietnamnet
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