Quality bargains at Saigon Square Center
With fully loaded shelves and a variety of different shops, the Saigon Square Center at the corner of Le Loi Street and Nam Ky Khoi Nghia Street in downtown HCMC is always packed with Vietnamese and foreign shoppers.
Also known as the Russian market, the center is located at 77-89 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia Street in District 1 and is easily recognizable by its white metal roof.
Although the atmosphere outside can be hot for those unaccustomed to metal roofs, it is easy to relax while shopping at the outdoor shops that sell shirts, glasses, belts, shoes and watches manned by smiley young sales associates. Entering the air conditioned center, customers will feel overwhelmed by the hundreds of shops selling products ranging from shoes to hats.
At SASHA DASHA shop , some foreign customers are selecting shoes and pullovers for the upcoming Christmas season. Pullovers for her are priced at VND500,000 and VND450,000 for him. Women’s shoes range between VND250,000-300,000.
Peter and Morley, a British couple who have visited the center six times, said that they love the products because they are very cheap and of good quality, especially the T-shirts and bags.
“I bought nine T-shirts for my husband Peter at US$4 each. If we bought these T-shirts in England, they would have cost US$110 each,” Morley said.
Peter added that some people told them to bargain when buying goods here, but he feels that people are very friendly and honest.
Heading upstairs, customers are amazed by the 100 shops fully loaded with countless products. Men’s shirts cost US$12, while trousers are priced at US$35.
Due to the soft music and crowd’s tetê-à-têtes, the center’s atmosphere is like a fair.
Scott Lee, a 34-year-old man from Taiwan, told the Daily that although the prices of products have gone up slightly compared to two years ago and higher than in Cambodia and Thailand, he prefers to buy products here to elsewhere because they are more original.
“I travel to HCMC once a month for dealings and trade. On this visit I bought 200 of each kind of good to bring back to Taiwan,” Lee said.
Like other wholesale dealers, Lee can earn a profit by buying a handbag for US$9 and selling it in Taiwan for US$16.
Le Thi Quoc Hien, the owner of Shop 48, sells handbags upstairs at the center. She said that 80% of her clients are foreigners and that most of them have told her that the prices and quality of goods at the center are acceptable. Hien sells some 30 handbags a day.
A female sales associate explained to a tourist that people still call the center the Russian market because nearly half of the shops were moved here from the Russian market at Hai Ba Trung Street in early September of this year.
Nguyen Thi Minh Chau, the owner of Minh Chau Shop, said that she went to Russia to study at the university in 1982 and came back to Vietnam in 1987. She opened the shop to sell all kinds of pullovers for Russian people.
Russian words on the signboards of many shops signal to customers that the shop owners studied in Russia at some point.
“We sell special pullovers and shorts for people from Russia and Eastern European countries because we know the manner of dressing for people in these countries very well,” Chau said.
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