Supermarkets in HCM City gear up for Lunar New Year

HCM City (VNA) - Many supermarkets are launching attractive promotion programmes in the days ahead of Tet (Lunar New Year) to attract customers. Tet falls on February 16 this year.

In addition to cutting prices on more than 5,000 essential items from January 11 to February 14, Co.opmart and Co.opXtra have teamed up with suppliers for another programme under which they will cut prices of many kinds of fresh food by the maximum possible rates for seven days starting just before Tet.

They have also applied “Super discounts” and “Buy more, get more discounts” on the weekend and incentive programmes for their loyal customers such as offering high reward points.

Similarly, Korean retailer Lotte Mart also launched three consecutive promotion programmes: The “Tet comes to Lotte Mart” programme takes place from January 24 to February 15, with discounts between 5-49 percent on more than 1,200 products; “For a full Tet” from February 7 to 15 with discounts on over 80 Tet-featured products; and “Starting a desired spring” programme from February 13 to 21 with hundreds of products discounted between 5-49 percent.

Supermarket chain Big C is offering a discount of up to 40 percent on 13 types of fruit. Imported fruits like Egyptian oranges, Korean pears, French kiwis and South African grapes are priced at 30,000-83,000 VND (1.32-3.64 USD) for a kilo until February 15.

Moreover, for the first time, French and US green and red apples will be sold at the same price of 29,900 VND a kilo.

In addition to this, Big C will launch two “unprecedented price shock” programmes applicable to its food and fresh goods until New Year’s Eve on February 15.

According to insiders, the closer to Tet, retailers increasing apply promotion programmes to enhance competitiveness in attracting customers.

Market movements in the peak shopping days for Tet usually change quickly. Therefore, retailers need to keep a close eye on up-to-date figures to identify changes for timely responses.

Wholesale markets

Goods transported to the city’s two wholesales markets have increased strongly to meet peak shopping demand for the New Year from February 11 to 15.

Nguyen Van Huay, director of Thu Duc Wholesale Market Management and Trade Company, said goods volume entering the market can reach up to 7,500 tonnes a day, an increase of 10 percent over last year’s Tet.

Vegetable volume at the market fluctuates between 2,700 tonnes to 3,000 tonnes a day, while fruits are between 4,300-4,500 tonnes a day.

At Hoc Mon wholesale market, the amount of goods entering the market from February 12 (four days ahead of Tet) may go up to 5,500 tonnes per day, up 100 percent compared to normal days.

According to traders at the two wholesales markets, the supply of popular fruits for Tet such as grapefruits, mangos, tangerines and dragon fruits may be not much higher due to unfavourable weather last year.

About 150-170 tonnes of grapefruits and 100-120 tonnes of mango are expected to enter Thu Duc Market a day on days near Tet, but their prices will rise sharply if there is a surge in demand.

Thu Duc Wholesale Market’s management board forecasted that grapefruits can be priced at 60,000-65,000 VND per kilo for green skin grapefruit and 28,000-30,000 VND a kilo for Nam Roi grapefruit, while it is 130,000-150,000 VND for a kilo of Hoa Loc mango, 45,000-50,000 VND per kilo of sweet tangerine and 80,000-100,000 VND per kilo of custard-apple.

Nguyen Huynh Trang, deputy director of the HCM City Department of Industry and Trade, has asked the management boards of the two wholesale markets to keep track of markets and update supply-demand and pricing situations, in order to quickly report to the department and relevant agencies if there is a sudden fluctuation. - VNA