With the Lunar New Year (Tet) around the corner, retailers are scrambling to stockpile goods to meet the imminent surge in demand.

A representative of Saigon Co.op said stocks of fresh foods have been doubled so that its Co.opmart, Co.opXtra, Co.op Food, and Co.opSmile stores could meet any surge in demand during Tet.

Saigon Co.op has also increased by 20-50% the stock of goods it is selling under the city’s price stablisation programme and of essential goods, he said.

To ensure consumer price stability, it has allocated most of its budget to nine items under the programme – rice, sugar, cooking oil, pork, poultry meat, poultry eggs, processed food, fruits and vegetables, and seafood, the representative said.

Saigon Co.op will also increase its supply of ready-to-eat dishes.

Nguyen Trong Tuan, operations director of WinMart supermarket system, said the number of customers shopping at WinMart/WinMart has increased sharply since early this month.

They mainly buy essential goods and Tet gift baskets, and the numbers are expected to go up even further between the beginning of January and Tết, which falls on January 22, he said.

WinCommerce had readied stocking plans for Tet a few months ago, and they involve increasing stocks by 20-30% from last year, he said.

“In the fresh food category, we focus on certain items such as vegetables, fruits and meat.

“Traditional Tet items such as fruit gift hampers, banh chung (square glutinous rice cake) and vegetable pickles are also stocked in large quantities and at good prices with promotions of up to 50%.”

Stocks of other commonly consumed items during Tet such as confectionery and beverages have increased by 20%, he said.

WinCommerce has also increased the supply of dry foods and regional specialties, he added.

Forecasting shopping demand during Tet to be equal to or higher than before the pandemic, Central Retail’s GO!, Big C and Tops Market supermarket chains have also stocked up abundantly.

They have increased stocks of pork, beef, seafood, vegetables, and fruits and are selling a range of fruit hampers with imported items and specialties from around Vietnam.

Retailers have also launched big promotions on the occasion.

Saigon Co.op said its supermarkets would have promotion programmes from now until the Lunar New Year, including discounts on thousands of products of up to 50% and even higher during a 10-day period before the holiday, gifts, higher reward points than normal and gift vouchers.

There is a 15% discount on some three million Tet gift hampers.

Saigon Co.op is also implementing a programme called ‘Gan ket tinh than - Tet xa them gan’ under which customers can order gift baskets at any Co.opmart and Co.opXtra supermarket or online at https: //cooponline.vn, and get them delivered almost for free to more than 40 provinces and cities.

Go!, Big C and Tops Market are offering discounts of up to 50% on hundreds of products and discounts on gift hampers.

From December 22 to January 4, shoppers at GO! and Big C with bills of 500,000 VND (21.2 USD) or more will get a lucky draw coupon with prizes worth more than 1.5  billion VND (63,615 USD).

In addition to offering discounts on up to 50% on many products, WinMart/ Winmart stores nationwide will gift customers with a 750g bag of Ngọc Nương rice when they buy a half MEATDeli ‘Gà ngon LaChanh’ (chicken with fresh lemon leaves) and two bags for buying a whole until January 21.

According to market research company Kantar Worldpanel Vietnam, following two years of low sales during Tet, things are expected to look up for the fast moving consumer goods industry this time around since the Vietnamese economy has recovered and consumers have a positive outlook on economic prospects.

The occurrence of two major holidays in a single month (New Year and Lunar New Year) is expected to provide a boost to spending.

Tet is the busiest season of the year in Vietnam, usually generating massive demand for shopping, gifting and travel./.