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Holiday promotions draw buyers to supermarkets
In Big C Supermarket, Nguyen Thanh Thuy is buying semi-processed foods produced by a local firm at a discount of 10 percent.
“I usually buy food from street vendors because of their lower prices. However, on April 30 (Liberation Day) and International Labor Day, the supermarket is offering big discounts on many products, so prices here are the same as or even lower than the street shops,” Thuy said. The 24-year-old clerk at a paper company came to the counter with a cart full of fruits, vegetables, rice and fish.
Many firms and supermarkets have launched promotions to spur consumption at a time when the economic slowdown has dragged down buying.
Producers and distributors have launched major promotion programs, offering big discounts or gifts to customers.
Big C, with its slogan “Good Prices for Everyone,” is offering discounts of 25-49 percent on many garment products, 5-10 percent on food items, and 10-50 percent on home appliances.
Tran Manh Canh, deputy general director of the Hanoi Trading Corp. (Hapro), said Hapro outlets, besides offering gifts to customers, are offering discounts of 5-25 percent on many items, mainly food items, electronics and garments, between April 26 and May 7.
Under its promotion program, food processor Vissan offers discounts of 5- 10 percent, mainly on frozen and canned foods.
Keep an eye on promotions
But the chairman of the Hanoi Supermarket Association, Vu Vinh Phu said, promotion campaigns to spur consumption are quite necessary in the current context. “The programs should be more frequently conducted.”
But official agencies should keep a closer eye on them to ensure quality, he said. Some companies are offering products of poor quality, or those that are nearly out of date, under the programs, he said.
In fact, he said, only half the promotion campaigns are of good quality.
Distributors and producers should consider cutting selling prices even without promotions since the cost of many goods has fallen, Phu said.
The agencies should also prevent firms from arbitrarily hiking prices whenever the economy looks up, he said.
There remain many people who can still not afford to buy at supermarkets despite the promotions. For them, the prices are still too high, especially since their incomes have shrunk because of the economic crisis.
“My salary has been cut 30 percent while everything in supermarkets, despite the sales, is still too expensive,” Nguyen Thu Hang, a migrant construction worker said, as she selected some fish at an open-air market along a crowded and dusty street.
Hapro’s Canh said his supermarket expects turnover to increase 15-20 percent during the holiday.
“This is not a sharp rise compared with past years,” he said.
Ngan Anh
thanhnien
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