Sale switches made in order to stay relevant

The Vua Cua seafood restaurant chain used to be one of the more crowded restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City

Businesses primarily dealing in fresh flowers, cosmetics, fashion, furniture, and restaurants have turned to selling food and medical supplies in recent times due to pandemic prevention regulations. Many of those that have not been able to switch strategies have been forced to close indefinitely.

The Vua Cua seafood restaurant chain used to be one of the more crowded restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City. Since it is no longer allowed to serve customers at the store or sell takeaway food, Vua Cua has switched to selling ready-made items such as bread, dumplings, and seafood and dipping sauces. CEO Doan Thi Anh Thu said the brand has sold about 50,000 loaves of bread since June.

By the end of July, Vua Cua also expanded into agribusiness with nearly 40 different types of fruit and vegetables. “We source goods from Dong Thap. The company’s advantage is that it can prepare its own delivery team,” said Anh Thu.

Meanwhile, the famous Dalat Hasfarm Flower Shop chain also announced that it will sell more vegetables under the Hasfarm Green brand at three Dalat Hasfarm stores in Hanoi. Vegetables will be sold in combos or sold with flowers at a stable price, providing an additional place to buy food for people in the capital during the lockdown.

While the transformation of many businesses has taken place recently, in tourism it has been a long 20 months of difficulties that have forced them to switch to new models.

According to Nguyen Huu Cuong, director of Trang An International Travel Co., Ltd. based in Hai Ba Trung district of Hanoi, the company has cooperated with a rice production commune after working with the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang, becoming a distributor in the Hanoi market. “The company switched to the food business to create jobs for employees who are temporarily absent from work, and at the same time to support tourism activities in the future. When we entered a new field, we had to make a lot of effort and many stages had to be re-learned from the beginning,” Cuong shared.

Despite the necessity in order to survive, there are very few businesses converting to a completely new model because social distancing is not considered an appropriate period for starting a business project, with many simply choosing to temporarily hibernate and focus on researching new products instead.