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Seeking LCD TVs across the border
Vietnamese people in northern provinces now like to travel to China to buy LCD TVs in markets just across the border.
The big area over the border which links China’s Yun Nan province with Vietnam’s Lao Cai province is a big market full of mobile phones, electronic products, and… Vietnamese visitors.
Vietnamese people say it is better to buy LCD TVs at He Kou border gate as one can more easily find products manufactured by ‘central enterprises’ there than at any other border gate market.
In Vietnamese people’s minds, China-made products can be divided into two categories: ‘local products’, which are made by local enterprises, and ‘central products’, which are made by bigger and more prestigious enterprises. If Vietnamese people are looking for cheap LCD TVs, they go to Lang Son or Mong Cai town, and if they want good products, they go to He Kou market, where they can get well-known brand name Chinese products.
There, in He Kou, Vietnamese visitors can find familiar makes like Philips and TCL, as the products are also selling in Vietnam, and products with less well-known brand names like Haier, Hisense and Skyworth.
There is a wide range of products here, from 21-inch to 60-inch products with different prices, from VND3.5 million to several tens of million VND. All the products here are quoted in Chinese yuan.
Vietnamese visitors sometimes have difficulties finding suitable products for them because all technical parameters of the products are in Chinese language, while the interpreters at shops or Vietnamese salesmen still cannot explain all the things required by customers. Therefore, they purchase products by ‘feeling’.
Some other visitors prove to be more fastidious. “I think that the image quality is good, not much inferior to Samsung or LG products, but I still hesitate to purchase products here because I cannot read about the technical specifications,” Son, a traveller from Yen Bai province, said.
“I would rather buy a TV in Hanoi though it will involve higher transport costs, because I would feel safer with the post-sales services,” he said.
After just several minutes of thinking, the man called his son, who is working in Hanoi, telling him to buy a 32-inch Samsung Full HD TV priced at VND10 million. The TV would be priced the same as in He Kou.
In fact, the prices of the China-made ‘central products’ available in He Kou are not cheaper than products being sold in Hanoi. The products have become more expensive due to the Chinese yuan’s appreciation. A yuan is now converted into VND2,700 instead of VND2,000-2,400.
Market observers say that the TVs in He Kou are mostly being sold to tourists, who like small TVs, and residents of Vietnam’s Lao Cai province. The residents of the province can easily get products home, while they do not have to pay tax when they go through customs agencies, in accordance with the treaties signed between the two governments on cross-border trade.
China-made LCD TVs, in the eyes of Vietnamese people, are ‘acceptable’ with passable quality and soft prices. Cuong, a staff of a hydropower project in Lao Cai province, related that he had purchased a 60-inch TV for his family in Hanoi. The TV has been operating well for two years. Lam, a taxi driver in Lao Cai, also said that many local residents used China made TVs for the same reason.
Fastidious customers who want products with high quality go directly to big sales agents in China. They are told that the products at the agents are mainly sold to local Chinese, not to tourists; therefore, they have better quality.
vietnamnet, sgtt
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