With an impressive growth rate in less space and smaller capitalrequirement, convenience stores and mini-supermarkets are finding favourwith investors. The Sai Gon Giai Phong newspaper reports.
Explaining the reason for switching from shopping in a big supermarketto a mini one near her house, Bui Thu Thao in District 1 said she caneasily control spending in a smaller store where she is not inundated bypromotional programmes and piles of commodities to choose from.
Like Thao, a number of consumers are choosing to shop in mini supermarkets or convenience stores now.
This shows a change in shopping patterns in urban Vietnamese, who arebuying more goods but at stable prices while also saving on the timefactor.
According to a recent survey by KantarWorldpanel, mini supermarkets and convenience stores have seen growthrate of 74 percent while the growth by big supermarkets has been ataround 6 percent.
Two years ago, around 10 percentof households in urban districts chose convenience stores once a year.This year at least one household out of five chooses a convenience storeonce a year.
Kantar Worldpanel predicts soon every household will go to mini supermarkets or convenience stores once a year.
Local and international retailers do not want to miss this chance.Many big supermarkets have switched to convenience stores. For instance,Saigon Co-op has set up Co-op Food, Citimart launched B&Bconvenience store, Satra established Satra Food convenience chains,Big C with New Cho and Express, and many different names such as CircleK, shop & go, Ministop, Family Mart.
Investorsjust spend 2.5 billion VND (118,749 USD) on an area of 50-200 squaremetres while they need hundreds of billions and an area of tens ofthousands of square metres to set up a big supermarket.
Moreover, the payback period in mini supermarkets and convenience stores is quite fast.
At present, two or three mini supermarkets or convenience stores are mushrooming in residential blocks every month.
This trend will not stop in the future as retailers plan to grow morechains. For instance, Saigon Co-op targets to have 150 stores by 2015.Similarly, Satra plans to develop 20 to 50 stores as soon as possible.
Foreign investors make no secret of their desire todominate the retail market. Japanese retailer Family Mart has made acomeback in Vietnam’s retail market with a Ho Chi Minh City-based store.As per its plan, Family Mart will set up an additional 20 conveniencestores by year end.
When it comes to Family Mart,people remember bidding farewell to the Japanese retailer and localdistribution and retail firm Phu Thai Group JSC.
Phu Thai Group has developed a new retail brand B’smart. Thai BeriJucker Plc (BJC) has jumped into the Vietnamese retail market by buyingequities of Phu Thai. According to its plan, 20 B’smart convenienceshops would be opened in Ho Chi Minh City by the end of 2013 to increasethe total number to more than 60.
Yet every coinhas two sides. Challenges of setting up a convenience store or minisupermarket is that leasing price will increase year by year, investorswill face difficulties in maintaining operations in a fixed place.
Furthermore, when the economy improves, people will prefer to go tobig supermarkets where piles of commodities are displayed with variouspromotional programmes.-VNA
Explaining the reason for switching from shopping in a big supermarketto a mini one near her house, Bui Thu Thao in District 1 said she caneasily control spending in a smaller store where she is not inundated bypromotional programmes and piles of commodities to choose from.
Like Thao, a number of consumers are choosing to shop in mini supermarkets or convenience stores now.
This shows a change in shopping patterns in urban Vietnamese, who arebuying more goods but at stable prices while also saving on the timefactor.
According to a recent survey by KantarWorldpanel, mini supermarkets and convenience stores have seen growthrate of 74 percent while the growth by big supermarkets has been ataround 6 percent.
Two years ago, around 10 percentof households in urban districts chose convenience stores once a year.This year at least one household out of five chooses a convenience storeonce a year.
Kantar Worldpanel predicts soon every household will go to mini supermarkets or convenience stores once a year.
Local and international retailers do not want to miss this chance.Many big supermarkets have switched to convenience stores. For instance,Saigon Co-op has set up Co-op Food, Citimart launched B&Bconvenience store, Satra established Satra Food convenience chains,Big C with New Cho and Express, and many different names such as CircleK, shop & go, Ministop, Family Mart.
Investorsjust spend 2.5 billion VND (118,749 USD) on an area of 50-200 squaremetres while they need hundreds of billions and an area of tens ofthousands of square metres to set up a big supermarket.
Moreover, the payback period in mini supermarkets and convenience stores is quite fast.
At present, two or three mini supermarkets or convenience stores are mushrooming in residential blocks every month.
This trend will not stop in the future as retailers plan to grow morechains. For instance, Saigon Co-op targets to have 150 stores by 2015.Similarly, Satra plans to develop 20 to 50 stores as soon as possible.
Foreign investors make no secret of their desire todominate the retail market. Japanese retailer Family Mart has made acomeback in Vietnam’s retail market with a Ho Chi Minh City-based store.As per its plan, Family Mart will set up an additional 20 conveniencestores by year end.
When it comes to Family Mart,people remember bidding farewell to the Japanese retailer and localdistribution and retail firm Phu Thai Group JSC.
Phu Thai Group has developed a new retail brand B’smart. Thai BeriJucker Plc (BJC) has jumped into the Vietnamese retail market by buyingequities of Phu Thai. According to its plan, 20 B’smart convenienceshops would be opened in Ho Chi Minh City by the end of 2013 to increasethe total number to more than 60.
Yet every coinhas two sides. Challenges of setting up a convenience store or minisupermarket is that leasing price will increase year by year, investorswill face difficulties in maintaining operations in a fixed place.
Furthermore, when the economy improves, people will prefer to go tobig supermarkets where piles of commodities are displayed with variouspromotional programmes.-VNA
