With the Mid-Autumn Festival just 5 days away, numerous mooncake sellers in Ho Chi Minh City have started offering promotions and discounts. However, most of these are fake promotions aimed at attracting consumers.
Ho Chi Minh City’s bustling mooncake promotions. (Photo: Dai Viet)
Posing as a customer, VTC News reporters visited a mooncake seller on Cach Mang Thang Tam Street, District 3. Outside the store, the owner displayed several signs advertising a “buy 1, get 3 free” deal.
We enquired about this promotion and were told that by paying for one mooncake, we would receive four. To demonstrate, the seller offered us a box of four mooncakes for VND188,000.
“Usually, the price of a single 150-gram chicken jambon or jambon eight-treasure mooncake is VND185,000. Now, I’m offering you a box of four for just VND188,000,” the female seller said.
A box of four mooncakes on promotion for VND188,000. (Photo: Dai Viet)
Mr. Vo Van Cuong, a long-time wholesale mooncake trader in Ho Chi Minh City, shared that the retail price of a single 150-gram mooncake with one yolk ranges from VND60,000 to VND70,000. However, sellers inflate the price by three times during promotions to create the illusion of a massive discount.
According to Mr. Cuong, the “buy 1, get 3 free” tactic is actually a discount of around 20-25%. At this price, sellers still make a small profit as the Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching. If they don’t sell quickly, the mooncakes will pass their expiration date and have to be discarded.
Numerous other mooncake sellers in District 3, District 10, Tan Binh, Tan Phu, Go Vap, and other areas are also offering similar promotions, such as “buy 1, get 1 free” or a flat price of VND35,000 per mooncake. However, these deals often involve increasing the price before offering the second mooncake or limiting customers to purchasing only small-sized mooncakes at the discounted price.
Small mooncakes sold for VND35,000 each. (Photo: Dai Viet)
Ms. Hanh, a resident of District 3, shared that mooncake sellers in Ho Chi Minh City often use fake promotions to attract customers. Consumers are now familiar with these tactics. As mooncakes are not an essential item, she believes it is fine to buy them or not.
“Even the regular mooncake boxes cost around VND300,000 each, which I think is quite expensive. Not to mention the boxes that cost VND1.5-2 million. This year, my family only bought two mooncakes for VND65,000 each,” Ms. Hanh said.
A representative of a leading mooncake brand shared that their company never discounts mooncakes and only sells them at the listed price. If there are any unsold mooncakes, the company will retrieve and properly dispose of them.
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