VnnNews – Vietnamese consumers are so fond of foreign made products that they would purchase the goods at exorbitant prices.
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The cookies on sale |
VietNamNet reporters decided to go to a well-know shop of its kind in Tan Binh district. The shop looked like a normal house, some 60 square metres with no signs to indicate that this was a shop.
Goods were displayed in the shop window and on iron shelves, including shower cream, shampoo, rinse, soap, underwear, socks, and handbags.
Do you know what it is?
A woman came to welcome visitors, assuring that “You can feel secure if you purchase goods here. They are all real and inexpensive, brought by airlines’ stewardesses.”
The reporter took a bottle of rinse and tried to find the information about the origin of products. She asked where the product was made, and the woman replied that it might be German.
“We can say for certain where the products are made, so no need to read the labels,” she added
In the next room, canned food, confectionary, dairy products, perfume, cosmetics and footwear were on display
Two refrigerators were full of foods for malnourished children. A tiny carton of these products has the high price of 45,000-50,000 dong.
“Why don’t you label products in Vietnamese to help customers?” the VietNamNet reporter asked.
“Customers at our shops are already familiar with the products. Why do we have to label them?” she replied.
The reporter, who found out that the shop also sold medicine, held a box of liquid and asked the saleswoman: “What is the medicine?”
“This might be medicine good for the eyes. You can see the eye on the box,” the woman speculated.
She boasted that she had a lot of medicines to sell, including one to treat backaches at 700,000 dong per bottle and Vitamin C (45,000 dong per tube).
Paying any price
A young woman entered the shop, considered the products on display and then decided to purchase two cans of Ensure at 550,000 dong each. She purchased the milk supplement for her elderly mother.
“The same product sells at 400,000 dong in supermarkets, but it’s made in Vietnam,” she explained. “The product here is 150,000 dong more expensive, but it is made in a foreign country and therefore it is surely better.”
Pham Van Khoa, a loyal client, recalled that the shop once sold handbags at $1,200 dollar and then reduced the price to 1.2 million dong.
Nguyen Thi Huong, Khoa’s wife, stated that she has been purchasing dairy products here for her child, but the situation has not been much improved.
“You should be cautious when purchasing goods here; they are all very expensive.”
The trend, however, is that more and more clients in Vietnam purchase foreign goods from such shops at exorbitant prices in the belief that the products are better.
Thanh Huyen
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