Hundreds of customers stood in queues waiting to pay for goods at Hanoi’s Big C Supermarket on the weekend, an increasingly familiar sight that points to a change in the country’s shopping habits.

A cashier at the Big C Supermarket says each cash register rakes in at least VND 40 million (roughly US$2,350) on a Saturday and Sunday.

Pushing a trolley filled with different kinds of goods, Phuong Hoa, an employee at a Hanoi-based import-export company, said she often goes to the supermarket to buy commodities for the whole week.

And for souvenir seller Thuy Minh, going to supermarkets has become something she’s done for almost a decade.

“Shopping at supermarkets is very attractive as the whole family can go together and each can choose goods based on his or her own demand and favourite,” Minh said.

Each customer has a different reason for their growing custom of supermarkets, and retailers say the increasing number of people flocking to such outlets illustrates the country’s changing shopping habits.

Statistics released by the Vietnam Retailers’ Association show the rate of Vietnamese customers buying goods at supermarkets and trading centres rose from 9% in 2005 to 14% last year. They forecast it will climb to 24% in 2010.

In the two major cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the rate is much higher, reaching 15%, 24% and 37%, respectively.

It appears that when income is higher and the life is busier, instead of visiting traditional markets every day, people prefer purchasing goods at supermarkets and trading centres that boast plentiful supplies of commodities as well as professional customer service.

“Because of my busy job, I often do my shopping at supermarkets to save time and it has become a habit,” Phuong Hoa said. “I have not gone to markets for a long time.”

Big C General Director Pascal Billaud says sustainable economic growth, young population with higher income, and the changing habit of shopping are considered factors affecting positively Vietnam’s retail market in the years to come.

After 10 years of operation in Vietnam, Big C now operates seven trading centres and hypermarkets in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Bien Hoa, Hai Phong and Da Nang , which sell nearly 50,000 products, of which 95% are produced in Vietnam, he adds.

According to a study conducted by the world leading management consulting firm A.T. Kearney, Vietnam has emerged as the most attractive emerging market destination for retail investment.

In the recently-released annual Global Retail Development Index™ (GRDI), Vietnam leapt three positions from last year to occupy the first position, knocking out India which has held the place for three years in a row among 30 surveyed markets.

However, officials from the Ministry of Industry and Trade have raised concern about local businesses’ competitiveness as the time of January 2009 is approaching when Vietnam fully opens its retail market to foreign firms under commitments to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Director of the Domestic Trade Policy Department Hoang Tho Xuan says the market will become more animated with more in depth participation of foreign giant retailers.

“The most important factors deciding the competiveness of Vietnamese retailers is not only product quality but also their distribution methods and customer services,” Xuan says.

According to the Vietnam Retailers’ Association, the country now houses 140 supermarkets and hypermarkets and 20 trading centres in addition to nearly 1 million square metres for retail activities currently being developed. (VNA)