At 9am on September 6, Big C Tran Duy Hung supermarket (Hanoi) was busier than usual. The entire supermarket had 52 checkout points with lines of people waiting. Supermarket staff worked at full capacity, constantly replenishing goods in empty areas. The fresh food, green vegetables, dried goods... areas were busier than ever. Each person bought a cart full of essential items and waited for each other to pay.
The supermarket parking lot was full, many people had to wait for someone to come out and bring their cars in.
Ms. Tong Thanh Huong, 24 years old, in Cau Giay district, Hanoi said: Every week she visits Big C supermarket to buy food for the whole week. Normally, the supermarket is this crowded on weekends, but today, in the morning, there were many people coming to buy things.
Ms. Huong herself also went to the supermarket differently than usual. "With the news that super typhoon No. 3 would make landfall, I took advantage of this morning off from work to go shopping with my family for food to stock up for the upcoming stormy days. The items I chose were green vegetables, pork and dried foods like instant noodles," Ms. Huong said.
Mr. Tran Vu Duc, also from Cau Giay District, Hanoi, said: I work from home so I really need to have food constantly. Prices are still stable at the moment and have not increased. In my opinion, there may be price increases in the traditional market, but in the supermarket there is no shortage of goods and prices are stable. In Hanoi, there is no shortage of anything. Hanoi is only affected by the storm, not the center of the storm.
Ms. Le Thanh Tu in Thanh Xuan district worried: "In previous storms, prices during and after the rain and floods escalated, especially fresh products such as fish and vegetables doubled. Learning from experience, after knowing that a big storm was coming, I quickly bought a lot of food to stock up." This time, Ms. Tu bought a whole truck of vegetables to stock up with frozen meat and fish.
Big C supermarket representative said that the demand for shopping is also increasing. Especially during this time when natural disasters often occur, the unit has a plan to reserve goods to promptly respond to the people on the spot. Essential products have also been registered for reserve so that when natural disasters occur, there will be reserves to serve customers promptly. The unit also proactively checks, monitors, and prevents acts of taking advantage of heavy rain and floods to speculate, hoard goods, and arbitrarily raise prices of essential goods.
However, at small supermarkets in residential areas, the situation is not much disturbed. Staff at Green Mart supermarket at 48 Tran Kim Xuyen, Hanoi said that the supermarket is still preparing goods as usual, there has been no change. Maybe the mentality of apartment residents is to buy goods right where they live, so they do not go to stockpile. Although there has not been any change, the supermarket will ensure the best source of goods in the coming days.
Meanwhile, at the traditional markets, everything is going on as usual. Ms. Hoa, who sells vegetables at Nam Trung Yen market, said: “During the storm, we are afraid to go out, but it is not that there is no product to sell. All buying and selling activities at the market are still going on as usual. The prices of food items, especially fresh products and vegetables, are still stable.”
