Gia Vy in District 2 and her daughter were choosing school supplies at a bookshop in HCM City’s Binh Thanh District.
Vy said “The new school year will start soon. So I brought my daughter here to buy necessary stationary for her.”
Demand for school supplies at bookstores and supermarkets has increased significantly in recent days, with the former selling mostly notebooks, textbooks, pens, and pencils, and the latter, backpacks, school bags and uniforms.
The comic and reference books sections also attract many children, who read there or buy.
As in previous years the city is running a price stabilisation programme for school supplies.
Fourteen companies have registered to sell 24.8 million notebooks and 13.6 million textbooks, 2.2 million uniforms, 1.75 million schoolbags and backpacks, 720,000 pairs of shoes and other school supplies at fixed prices, meeting 35-50 per cent of demand.
Huong Mi Handbags Co Ltd, for instance, said his company would sell 950,000 backpacks and schoolbags, 20 per cent more than last year.
The company has many new models this year, including backpacks that prevent back deformities, he said.
Lam Anh Dau, chairman of Vinh Tien Paper JSC, said with output up to 70-80 million notebooks this year his company, together with other well-known producers, would ensure efficient supply in the market.
Bookstores, supermarkets and others have launched promotions for stationery and school supplies.
Many bookstores in HCM City, including Thang Long, Nguyen Van Cu and Fahasa, are offering 5-10 per cent discounts on textbooks and 30 per cent on reference books.
They have also cut the prices of other stationery products like notebooks, pens and school bags and backpacks.
Co.opMart and Co.opXtra supermarkets are offering big discounts on more than 1,200 items like school uniforms, school bags, notebooks, pens and other school supplies and nearly 250 price-stabilised products.
Backpacks and school bags of brands like Mr.Vui and Miti are sold at VND126,000-463,500.
Priced-stabilised uniforms of Sanding and SGC brands are sold at VND52,900-144,000 for white shirts and VND59,900-206,100 for trousers.
Korean supermarket Lotte Mart is also offering attractive discounts of 5-49 per cent on school supplies, uniforms, back packs, and nutritional foods from July 26 to August 28. — VNS