VietNamNet Bridge – The trend of opening mini-marts and mobile stores to sell stabilised-price goods at HCM City's export-processing and industrial zones has been popular with workers and, at the same time, has helped companies reduce their inventories.

The HCM City Export Processing and Industrial Zone Authority (HEPZA) said these mini-markets had brought safe food to workers while saving them time and money.

Ho Xuan Lam, HEPZA's office manager, said that nine stores and mini-marts had been set up in the city's industrial zones.

HEPZA has encouraged companies to open more mobile stores at factory sites of companies with 500 employees or more located in export-processing and industrial zones.

Since September, mobile stores have been set up at 20 of 100 companies with more than 500 employees each in the city's EPZs and IZs.

Goods sold at such stores and supermarkets are mostly sugar, cooking oil, rice, egg and meat. The prices are generally 5-15 per cent lower than those in other markets.

Nguyen Thi Thuy, who works in Tan Binh Industrial Zone, said that farmers and other customers were informed about the mobile shops' scheduled visits in advance, which allowed them to buy goods directly at the stores. If they were too busy, they could order the goods by telephone.

The companies that sell stabilised-price goods said the presence of the mobile shops had helped them reduce their inventories.

Nguyen Thanh Hung, deputy director of the Ba Huan Company Ltd, said the mobile marts in industrial zones had helped his company sell more goods, including eggs, their traditional product.

Lam from HEPZA said that about seven kitchens of industrial zones had been able to buy safe-quality foodstuff at cheap prices, which had helped prevent food poisoning, a problem that sometimes breaks out in kitchens industrial-zone.

VietNamNet/VNS