VietNamNet Bridge – Shopping services, which were first provided some 10 years ago in HCM City, have become more professional and popular as urban dwellers tend to have less time for housework.

In the current difficult conditions of the economic downturn, people have to fasten their belt. However, shopping services still have been existing and developing.

Thuy Linh, Director of a freight forwarding company in district 1 in HCM City, said one month ago, she bought ready made food from a catering shop in Tan Binh district. Linh and her family members were very satisfactory with the service.

However, after one month of using the service, Linh’s son told his mother that he got tired of the ready made food and he prefers the meals prepared by the mother.

Therefore, Linh has chosen a new solution. She hires someone to go to market and buy materials, while she prepares meals herself.

Vinh Thai, a private enterprise, was believed to be the first provider of the service. However, it later stopped the service because of big difficulties.

The services have been resumed recently and they have been provided in a more professional way, thanks to which service providers can get loyal customers.

Cam Ha, Director of Sen Vang, a service provider, said in general, she loses 15 percent of customers after a certain period. However, it is not because of the changes in the economic conditions, but of the other reasons.

Housewives don’t want the services any more maybe because they hire housemaids, or because they want new dishes for the menus.

Ha has noted that the sums of money spent by families remain unchanged if compared with that in the pre-economic period, simply because people cannot live without food.

Meanwhile, Ha’s customers, who use shopping services, are always the busy people who have to be at work all day long and have high incomes.

“The people would rather spend their time on making money than thinking about saving money by cutting down expenses,” she said.

Also according to Ha, an order with Sen Vang has the value of between VND100,000 and VND200,000.

Dieu from Lifesimple.vn said though many more service providers have joined the market, her company still can attract customers. Lifesimple’s customers generally want to go shopping three times a week or everyday.

Dieu said a 3-4 member family spends VND190,000-250,000 a day on food.

Ho Thi Diep from Health Company also said the current economic downturn in no way affects the company’s business, because the majority of its customers live in the districts in the central area of the city and have high income.

All the service providers affirm that they only deliver high quality and safe preliminarily treated food to customers. Some of them declare where the food comes from and how it is treated.

A representative from Nguyen Khang Company said the services have become more and more popular in big cities. Previously, a lot of people did not use the services for the fear of high service fees. However, they have been told that they can buy food at reasonable prices, because the service providers can get the materials at low wholesale prices.

Thanh Mai