Plaza 2 located on Pham Ngoc Thach street in district 3 of HCMC officially closed on December 15 after 1.5 years of operation. On the same day, Parkson Viet Tower in Hanoi also stopped operation. 

Both Taka Plaza 2 and Parkson Viet Tower were expected to become bustling shopping centers in the two largest cities of the country. 

Though the shopping centers’ owners offered discount rates of 50 percent for retail premises, merchants decided to leave because of slow sales.

The slump has also been seen at other shopping centers. Saigon Square 3 has few visitors, while many merchants are now trying to transfer their stalls. The same thing is happening at Lucky Plaza.

Customers not only want to buy goods at shopping malls, but also want many other experiences.

Saigon Mall in Go Vap district is also facing big problems. It is now being upgraded into a shopping and entertainment complex.

A representative of a shopping mall said that Vietnamese want to buy clothes, cosmetics and jewelry in malls where they can also buy meat and vegetables. 

The malls should also be places where their children can play and family members have coffee. Since many shopping malls cannot satisfy the requirements, they have had to leave the market.

Ly Truong Chien, a marketing expert, said the Vietnamese retail market has great potential, but if retailers cannot renovate in accordance with consumers’ tastes, they will have to leave.

Alex Crane, CEO of Cushman & Wakefield Vietnam, also commented that it is a growing tendency that shopping malls provide many different products and services in the same place. 

Therefore, the shopping malls which sell only luxury products are not the favorite destinations of customers.

Parkson once held a large retail market share in its first operation period, in 2007-2010. 
However, since it did not change the operation model, it has attracted fewer visitors. 

Customers not only want to buy goods at shopping malls, but also want many other experiences.

Phuong Linh, a housewife in Tan Binh district in HCMC, said many shopping centers still follow the old business model, and cannot satisfy diverse demands for both shopping and relaxing. 

“Saigonese won’t go to the places where they cannot find anything interesting. Meanwhile, the prices there are always sky high,” she commented.

According to Cushman & Wakefield, HCMC now has 131 retail centers and 300,000 square meters of retail premises join the market in 2016.

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