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Big sales cannot lure customers to outdated products
Since the beginning of March 2009, many big trade centres have launched impressive promotion campaigns, offering 50-70% discounts on products. However, the trade centres still have few customers.
Launching promotion campaigns to sell inventory items
Ready-made clothes prove to be the kind of product witnessing the biggest price discounts. At Z. trade centre, visitors can see a board with information about 50% discounts on several products. However, most of the discounted clothes were made last year and are out of fashion.
At D. centre, a lot of T-shirts and clothes were seen smeared because they have been hanging for a long time. The bigger the discounts are, the worse quality the products.
At Parkson trade centre, visitors can see big discounts, up to 70%, on many products in the footwear and handbag stalls. However, the products here on display are just old shoes.
The handbags with S brand name imported from Malaysia, which are on display with the big discount of 70%, attract many visitors. The handbags seem to be brand new, but it is easy to see that they are worn. Despite the big discounts, the handbags still have high prices of between VDN1.2mil and VND2mil/handbag.
Buyers wary about heavily-discounted products
Nguyen Thi Chau, who calls herself a shopping addict, and lives in Phu My Hung urban area, rushed to P. trade centre to hunt for discounted commodities right after she heard the news about the sale. However, Chau said that she was very disappointed. “The sale products, in fact, are ones which are unsalable.”
“In the global economic recession, when people all have to tighten their purse strings, it would be a big waste if you spent several million VND, which is equal to the monthly income of medium-class people, on a product, especially when they are old and out of fashion,” Chau said.
That explains why shopping centres, though offering attractive discounts, still cannot lure customers to the centres. Neither foreign nor domestic customers go to the shops. A saleswoman at D. Centre related that some products once had the big discount of 50% before Tet, but the products have still not been sold, therefore, they need bigger discounts, at 70%.
Despite the big discounts, the prices of luxury items on sale at big trade centres remain very high in comparison with the incomes of the majority of Vietnamese people, and with the prices of domestically-made products.
A pair of Clarks shoes, previously sold at VND2.4mil, has seen the price decrease of 40%, to VND1,440,000. Hoang, an office staff, who lives in district 1, HCM City, said: “I would rather spend several hundred thousand VND to buy a good pair of shoes with a lesser known brand name”.
VietNamNet, SGTT
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