Nguyen Thi Nghi, an employee of Bingsu ice cream shop, yawned and looked at the empty seats in front. The lack of communication with customers had caused her to be sleepy while watching the counter.

Before the epidemic, the ice cream shop located in the Central Market (District 1) earned 2 million VND/day, but now revenue has dropped to 100,000-200,000 VND. Some days, it sells only one ice cream for 25,000 VND.

“In my several years of selling ice cream here, I have never seen such a bad circumstance like this. It is so sad. It all comes from the epidemic,” she said.

In the underground food court, most of the stalls are closed and are covered with dust. Many stalls have been dismantled, showing the owner's intention to stop doing business there. Of the 52 stalls in the Food Street area, only three stalls are open.

Nguyen Thi Trung Trinh, manager of Thai Ngon Ngon restaurant, said that in the past there were no empty chairs but now the number of diners is just a handful.

According to Trinh, many diners are still afraid of infection in public places and others have tightened their spending in the pandemic. In addition, after many months of lockdown, people have gotten used to the habit of cooking at home, saving money instead of going to restaurants.

A representative of the Central Market said the number of customers coming to the shopping and dining area has decreased by up to 70%, to about 200 persons per day. As up to 80% of the visitors used to be foreigners, the delay in opening the country for international visitors has cut off a source of visitors for this commercial center.

During the few months of social distancing, the maintenance cost for Central Market was up to 500 million VND/month, while revenue was zero. Although the managers have reduced the cost of space rental by 30-50%, up to 200 stalls have been closed.

Officials of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Industry and Trade said that food and beverage services make a great contribution to the city's total retail sales and revenue. The Department will work with relevant agencies to review and evaluate the situation to advise the HCM City People's Committee on how best to support food service providers.

Tran Chung

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