Sales at popular shopping centers nationwide are showing signs of falling as rising consumption prices forced local consumers to switch from fancy imported products to domestic ones.
Most local consumers tended to say no to luxury commodities and services, the market researcher FTA said in a survey of more than 600 people in three big cities nationwide including Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City.
They paid more attention to promotional packs and discounts, which have been carried out widespread at supermarkets, according to the survey.
The number of visitors at popular shopping centers downtown including Tax, Vincom, Parkson and Zen plazas decreased sharply, with sales of fancy fashion shops of Nike, Calvin Klein and Converse showing signs of slumping.
A salesperson of a cosmetic product shop at a shopping center in District 1, who asked not to be named, said the amount of shoppers has plummeted around 40-50 percent. He also said that most visitors were those who simply want to avoid the heat outside.
Cao Minh Hien, a shopper at the shopping center Parkson Le Thanh Ton in District 1, said she opted for domestic cookware, which would help her “save some money”.
“I used to prefer a set of five pots of the US’s Corningware. But given that the consumption prices surging day by day, I switch to buy made-in-Vietnam one to save money for my family,” Hien told Dau Tu Tai Chinh Newspaper.
The dropping sales of imported products has seen local shops halt stocking more items and focus solely on selling ones, which were in their inventory before the Lunar New Year holiday.
Vu Kim Hanh, chairwoman of the Vietnamese High Quality Goods Club, said local shoppers have switched to domestic products since rising imported taxes pushed up price of foreign-brand products.
Consumer prices rose 17.51 percent in April from a year earlier, the most in 28 months, stoked by increases in fuel and electricity prices.
Poverty will rise in Vietnam as a result of soaring inflation this year so the government must stay the course on price-busting policies, Thanh Nien News quoted John Hendra, head of the United Nations mission in the country, as saying on Tuesday.
A UN study showed that poverty increased by 2.1 per cent after Vietnam's last bout of high inflation in 2008.
That year, inflation peaked near 28 per cent in August. Last month, the annual rise in the consumer price index hit 17.5 per cent - its highest level since December 2008 - and it is still going up.
