A Co.opmart supermarket in HCM City. Saigon Co.op has prepared a large volume of goods to ensure adequate supply during the Tết holiday. — Photo courtesy of Saigon Co.op

HCM CITY — The Saigon Union of Trading Cooperatives (Saigon Co.op) has prepared a large volume of goods worth nearly VNĐ5 trillion (US$216.3 million), a year-on-year increase of nearly 20 per cent, to meet a surge in demand in the three months before, during and after the Tết (Lunar New Year) holiday.

Most of the fund has been used to prepare nine groups of commodities under the city’s price stabilisation programme – rice, sugar, cooking oil, pork, poultry meat, poultry eggs, processed food, fruits and vegetables, and seafood. The remaining funds are for other food and non-food products and Tết speciaties.

Nguyễn Anh Đức, Saigon Co.op’s general director, said that Saigon Co.op has been working with suppliers since mid-2020 to double the volume of essential goods, aiming to supply enough goods for Tết.

In addition, Saigon Co.op plans to increase the frequency of quality checks by five to 10 times compared to the regular months, especially food items for Tết.

An adequate supply of antibacterial cloth masks, medical masks and hand gel sanitisers has also been ensured.

The retailer has mapped out plans for timely transportation and distribution of goods to cope with any circumstances related to the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring sufficient supply of essential goods at good prices.

Saigon Co.op’ s retail systems aim to keep prices unchanged and offer discounts on thousands of Tết products up to 50 per cent and even higher during a 10-day period before the holiday.

To ease shopping pressure during the final days of the lunar year, Saigon Co.op retail chains, including Co.opmart, Co.opXtra, Co.op Food, Co.op Smiles, Cheers, HTVCo.op and Sense City, across the country will start offering discounts on goods two months before Tết.

The Co.opmart supermarket chain plans to organise 200 mobile sale trips to remote areas to meet the demand for holiday shopping among workers in the city’s industrial and processing zones and other provinces where the chain has stores. — VNS