Sales manager of supermarket chain Tmart also informed that cooking oil, instant noodles and milk are currently the items that have increased in price the most. “Since the beginning of the year, along with the increase in petrol prices, suppliers have continuously adjusted the selling prices of items such as cooking oil, fish sauce, and instant noodles with an increase of about 15-20%. Vinamilk, TH Truemilk… also started to increase in price from this March and April“.

Supermarkets try to keep prices down

Talking about the impact of gasoline on the prices of all kinds of goods, Mr. Le Van Liem, Northern Regional Director of Saigon Co.op (Co.opmart operating unit) shared: “Composition of gasoline price in goods only accounts for about 7-8%, not much, so the increase in petrol price does not affect fresh products too much. However, for industrially processed products, which consume a lot of raw materials and fuel such as instant noodles, cooking oil, and milk, it is extremely affected. Suppliers of these items have sent us a proposal to increase prices since gasoline prices started to adjust.“.

However, according to Mr. Liem, the supermarket will carefully consider each group of goods before deciding to increase the selling price of products. For the proposed items that are unreasonable, the supermarket will reject and not accept the price increase proposed by the suppliers.

At the same time, supermarkets will apply a delay in price increase with a period of 1-2 weeks. “For example, for items that we think are reasonable to increase in price and accept that increase, we do not apply the increase immediately, but there must be a delay”Mr. Liem said.

In addition, Co.op also tried to control transportation costs by coordinating Saigon Co.op’s existing facilities with suppliers to form a more scientific transportation scheme, resulting in combined with digital control to reduce transportation costs.

A representative of Tmart said that although suppliers have increased prices, they are keeping the old selling prices for consumers by continuing to sell imported goods at the old prices. However, this solution is only temporary because old goods will quickly sell out, and they are forced to increase prices when new goods hit the shelves.

Meanwhile, BigC supermarket, with its strong sales capacity, has used its business efficiency to sign offtake contracts with suppliers with an extended term of every year. The cost factor has also been clearly agreed in the contract, so the supermarket’s selling price is temporarily unaffected.