Specifically, customers coming to the Co.opmart supermarkets on To Ky and Nguyen Anh Thu streets in District 12 normally buy vegetables, meat, and fish. For customers’ safety, the supermarket staffs ask consumers to declare their health status before shopping.

According to a representative of Saigon Co.op, goods at supermarket chains including Co.opmart, and Co.opXtra are quite abundant.

In June alone, Saigon Co.op has offered two discount programs, each lasting for two weeks. The first discount program lasted from June 3 to June 16, mainly on fresh foods and agricultural products, especially fresh litchi from the northern provinces. A kilogram of litchi is priced at VND27,900 and purple sweet potato at VND5,900 at Co.opmart, Co.opXtra, Co.op Food.

In order to meet shoppers’ needs during social distancing, employees of the Saigon Co.op supermarket chain are willing to give free delivery to commodities in near places. "The number of online orders in a few days of social distancing increased by 3-5 times compared to normal days, and the revenue also increased significantly," a Saigon Co.op leader said.

Similarly, Satra and Central Retail supermarkets have also offered free delivery to online shoppers in near locations with invoices from VND200,000 up.

Supermarkets accept both cash payment and non-cash payment methods. An employee of BigC supermarket ( of Central Retail Group) said online orders are constantly increasing and staffs have been rushed off their feet to deliver commodities to customers.

According to the Vinmart system, the number of customers ordering online is increasing rapidly, 1.5-2 times higher than the normal days before social distancing on May 31.

Statistics of e-commerce platforms such as Tiki and Lazada have shown that because of the increase in online orders, the companies had to hire more staff to support internet shopping.
Nguyen Thuy, a delivery worker in districts 12 and Hoc Mon shared that she has been so busy at delivering that she forgot her lunch; however, some customers get angry sending complaints to the operator when there are delayed deliveries.

Sellers of commodity on the Internet have also seen an increase in orders. Nguyen Thi Lan who sells honey and avocado reported that more online shoppers ordered honey and the fruit.

SGGP

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