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Supermarkets launch ‘Buy Vietnam!’ promotions
Vietnam’s supermarkets report that profits are increasingly tied to sales of domestic products rather than imports, so they are happy to support the ‘buy Vietnam’ campaign that the Party has launched to expand consumption of domestic items.
Big C in Hanoi is a pioneer in sales promotions for Vietnamese goods.
With its “Buy Vietnam” campaign, 600 items, all made in Vietnam, have been discounted 10 to 50 percent from August 28 to September 13. Consumer goods like t-shirts, Lix Extra detergent, dish liquids, non-stick frying pans and Tuong An vegetable oil are all half off.
Big C’s General Director Nguyen Thai Dung affirms that domestically-made products are the top priority in Big C’s trade policy, while imports are put on sale merely to diversify their stock.
“In fact, 95 percent of the products available at Big C are made in Vietnam,” Dung reports. He added that customers have been buying more and more Vietnamese goods over the last two years.
Many retailers note that Vietnamese shoppers are now more interested in domestic goods. Even supermarkets, once considered the ‘paradise of import goods,’ now sell domestic products.
A representative from Maximark commented that Vietnamese goods made up 70 percent of the chain’s total revenue.
“We have changed our policies because sales of domestic goods have increased by 30 percent over the last three years. Meanwhile, sales of import goods have decreased,” he observed.
Imports have lost their places on supermarkets’ shelves, the retailers claimed, because Vietnamese products are much cheaper with no discernable difference in quality.
Saigon Co-op has also launched a sale called ‘Pride in Vietnam’s Products,” beginning August 31 and lasting until September 27. Some 150 producers have joined their program, which is estimated to cost 40 billion dong.
Saigon Co-op will organize 32 trips to bring goods to seven districts in the suburban areas of HCM City as well as five industrial and export-processing zones.
Dong Hung, owner of the Citimart chain with 18 supermarkets in HCM City and other provinces, is also initiating a promotional sale that highlights domestic products.
Of the sale products in Citimart’s program, 90 percent are made in Vietnam. The retailer accepts a 50 percent profit reduction per product and producers also accept the sale price reduction of 10-30 percent.
vietnamnet, vneconomy
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