Convenience Stores
Like the market, convenient stores in Vietnam are popular places for local residents to purchase everyday products daily lives. You can purchase different kinds of convenient products from tooth paste to milk at these shops with reasonable price and standard quality. However, there are some tips that might help you to best buy items from these shops, as well as avoiding risks of defective goods from these stores.
Photo : conbeo.com
The first thing to remember is that credit card is not useable at these convenient stores, and cash is the only payment method accepted by most stores. The fact is that these shops are only small retailers of products to consumers, and connect to banks for installing credit card payment system seems to be costly and complicated to them. Therefore, these shops prefer making transaction by cash rather than credit card: you take the goods, their take money. Simple and speedy. Consequently, bringing cash to convenient shops to buy thing is required, not only suggested. Furthermore, VND is used wider at these places than other foreign currency. Additionally, English is not a preferred language using at these shops, so you should try to learn some basic Vietnamese to use in case you buy things there.
Photo : lodyhelp.com
Also, please be aware that rate of defective or fake goods at convenient stores is often higher than supermarkets. Defective goods can be occurred in not only goods like cigarettes, alcohol or beer, but also foods and other products. Therefore an advice for you is checking the item carefully before buying it. For things like cigarettes or drinks, check the origins, name or packing of the products for signs of fake goods, and for things like cakes or candies, expired date is an essential figure to be verified. That could take a little more time, but be necessary for your safety when using the goods.
Also, it is not suggested that you bargain to products you buy at convenient shops. These shops operate like a small version of supermarket, not like a street market, so the price of products here are almost fixed and hardly modified unless there is change in input price. Therefore you should not bargain when buying things there or you will be treated uncomfortably by the shop owners.
