Group 2: Ice Cream Topic: Convenience Store Chains in Vietnam

EAP Writing 2

TABLE OF CONTENT
Part 1: INTRODUCTION. 2
1. 2. 3. 4.

Background of the study 2 Rationale 3 Scope of the study .. ..... 5 Literature review . 5

Part 2 : METHODOLOGY8
1. 2. 3.

Participants .8 Design 9 Procedure .10

Part 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS ....12 Part 4: CONCLUSION... ..18 REFERENCES..20 APPENDIX

Group 2: Ice Cream Topic: Convenience Store Chains in Vietnam

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PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Background

In many countries in the world, convenience stores are quite popular, not only in the city but also in the countryside. It is not difficult to see this type of business in some foreign films or TV channels. However, only a few Vietnamese people know exactly what a convenience store is. For many years, groceries and markets have played vital roles in shopping habits of Vietnamese. Around 10 recent years, supermarkets have been familiar with people as well. Vietnam is a developing country that connect closely with traditional life style. The late penetration of convenience stores into country adds on the ineffective propaganda makes difficulties for consumer to clarify its concepts. In fact, a convenience store is a store or a shop that sells essential items, such as: candy, ice-cream, cigarette, newspapers and magazines, toiletries and hygiene products, processed food, groceries, etc. Some stores are part of gas stations, money orders and wire transfer services or liquor products. They are often located alongside busy roads, in densely-populated urban neighborhoods, at gas/petrol stations or near railway stations or other transportation hubs. In some countries, the open-door time is longer, some being open 24hours. Convenience stores are also known as general stores, Australian milk bars, corner shops (in Britain), truck stops, night shops ( in Brussels, Belgium). Some wellknown worldwide brand names are 7-Eleven, FamilyMart, Uni-Mart, Royal Farms, Store 24, Wal Mart and so on. The development of convenienve stores in the world proves its market position .Average annual revenue per worker is about $440,000 for gas station/CS combinations and $145,000 for c-stores without gas. In Japan, there has seen a significant increase, and as of 8/2009 accounts for 42,345 units nation wide.7-Eleven leads the market with 12,467 stores, followed by Lawson (9,562) and FamilyMart (7,604); In Singapore, in 2004, there were 338 7-Eleven stores and 91 Cheers outlets; In Denmark, 2

Group 2: Ice Cream Topic: Convenience Store Chains in Vietnam

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Food and Grocery market sales accounted for an 83.1% share of the convenience stores and gas stations format in 2008; In US, about 120,000 stores with combined annual revenue of about $350 billion. Major companies include 7-Eleven, Circle K , and The Pantry. The industry is fragmented: the top 50 companies account for about 35 percent of industry sales. General information about convenience stores in the world is found out easily. Some famous books for reference in this field can be listed, for example: Convenience stores and retail fuel properties: essential appraisal issues by Robert E. Bainbridge, The art of buying and selling a convenience store by Terry Monroe, The complete convenience stores manager by Edward M. Harwell. Furthermore, there are many websites uploaded articles about convenience stores. Most of the sources are focus on the content of tips or strategies because this kind of business is such a potential object. Nevertheless it contains high risk in investment as well. Great experience and lessons from those books are helpful for junior businessmen. The documents also come from developed countries or general global overview. On a smaller scale , this research brings a overview of convenience stores in Vietnam market. The unpopularity of convenience stores in Vietnam derives from many reasons, such as: shopping habits, unsuitable strategies of investors, competitive advantages of traditional business This paper intends to introduce in detail about convenience stores in Vietnam, especially the difficulties that convenience stores have been currently facing with. That is a noticeable issue to take interest in, and from provided knowledge Vietnamese learn easily about convenience stores. This paper, therefore, includes the reality, causes and some suggestions for future development of convenience stores in Vietnam. In addition, the research attaches real survey and statistics.

2. Rationale
Convenience store( CS) started to be known in Vietnam since 2006. Despite the fact that CS over the world is a booming retail industry with billions dollar of profit per year, 3

Group 2: Ice Cream Topic: Convenience Store Chains in Vietnam

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the business seems unable to find its way to Vietnameses favor. A series of convenience store chains were opened at the end of 2006: Shop&Go, G7 Mart, Vmart, Best&Buy, Speedy, Day&Night but they have not developed as in the global market. When Vietnam became membership of the WTO in 2007, many people considered it a signal for the success of CS, as the local consumers might change their buying habit and be more open to foreign-style businesses. Nevertheless, the situation stayed unchanged. A great number of articles were published to mark the launch of convenience store chains (both Vietnamese brands and international brands) in Vietnam market. In addition, some articles and reports pointed out the unsatisfactory results of type of retailing, which illustrated by many examples and images of the current situation. However, published articles have not figure out what exactly obstacle convenience stores have to cope with in Vietnam, and not many recommendations were given for this new business. This may be a deficiency for a general observation of convenience store business, as well as for further studies. Therefore, the main purpose of this research is to provide a clearer look of this business in Vietnam. Moreover, this paper shows the disadvantages of CS in Vietnam, which will be the major concern of future investors or entrepreneurs. In this paper, we aim to: 1. Find out the current situation of convenience stores . 2. Figure out the possible reasons for unmarketable matter of convenience

stores in Vietnam.
3. Define possible options and suggestions for the improvement of

convenience store chains.

To be more specific, in the two first parts of our research, we will issue survey to learn about the buying habit of Vietnamese consumers and their opinion of convenience stores. We will also interview shop assistants of convenienve. The results gained and the information collected from secondary sources like articles, Internet and other researches will explain why CS chains are going down in Vietnam. In the final part, there will be a discussion of the result, and some suggestions for future development in this business.

Group 2: Ice Cream Topic: Convenience Store Chains in Vietnam

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Research questions What is the current situation of convenience stores in Vietnam?

Why do convenience store chains anticipate difficulties in Vietnam? How can convenience store become more popular among Vietnamese customers?

3. Scope of the study

Within the limited range of the next few pages, it is hard to cover all relevant issues of the CS worldwide, this proposal, therefore, attempts to present a snapshot of development and some basic features of CS in Vietnam only. More specifically, the study focuses mainly on some analysis of difficulties CS chains have been currently encounter in the two biggest markets of Vietnam - Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city market. In the other words, the market analysis has been carried out in these two most potential markets only then we will make some comparison with the markets overseas in order to find out the reasons why CS have been blooming successfully worldwide but not the same in Vietnam.

4. Literature review
Convenience stores evolved from a variety of sources early in the twentieth century. They drew upon characteristics of many types of retail establishments in existence at the time: the "mom-and-pop" neighborhood grocery store, the dairy store, the supermarket, specialty food shops, drug and variety stores, vending fast food chains, and gasoline service stations. Since then the convenience store industrys scope has been 5

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largely a result of its enormous number of locations. They are often located alongside busy roads, in densely populated urban neighborhoods, at gas/petrol stations or near railway stations or other transportation hubs. In some countries most convenience stores have longer shopping hours, some being open 24 hours. A heap of successful convenience stores, where the open front is a big attraction such as 7-eleven, Backers Milk, Mac's Convenience Stores, Family Mart, Seven & I Holding Co, Dairy Farm International Holdings, Cheers , have made a boom a cross the world. Nevertheless, we just can see the modest development of convenience store chains in Vietnam. Apparently, the unpopularity of Vietnam CS demonstrates that they have been facing with many difficulties. Currently, CS with tremendous growth helps people get its information easily from the books, newspapers, magazines, televisions, and the internet Robert E. Bainbridge (2003) widely cited book Convenience stores and retail fuel properties: Essential appraisal issues concentrated on appraising convenience stores with the crucial background knowledge. In addition, Terry Monroe (2009) explained both sides of the convenience stores sale from the perspective of both the buyer and the seller in his book The art of buying and selling a convenience store. Regarding the fast emergence of convenience stores, The Business Time (1984, March 23) identified the remarkable development of convenience store in the article Convenience stores pose threat to the supermarkets. The strong features of CS were mentioned in detail. One of those is Goods on offer when convenience stores may combine with other services. It is different from supermarket with longer shopping hours, some being open 24 hours. Also, famous convenience stores in America, Japan, Canada, Singapore, Taiwan was posted with their success. Going with The Business Time, Valuationresource had reports providing sources for industry trends and statistics, financial ratios, salary surveys, and more. It covers key aspects of this industry's size, scope, and operations, recent news and developments, industry trends, risks, and opportunities, and include a five-year industry forecast. While based on research, RNCOS E-Services Private Limited (June 2010) specialized in Global convenience store market analysis, p.115. The report provides extensive analysis on the booming CS market. It provides an insight into the CS industry 6

Group 2: Ice Cream Topic: Convenience Store Chains in Vietnam

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across Asia, Europe and North America and gives a brief overview of the consumer behavior in these regions. Indeed, most of those studies focus on rapid growth of CS market. Booming expansion of convenience store business, along with economic recovery, has been propelling the appearance of convenience store chains in Vietnam. Enewspaper, Marketing4daily (2008, may 4) posted the title Circle K convenience stores to hit Vietnam, which said Vietnam was being a target market for oversea retailers launching. Thesaigontimes.vn (2008, December 22) has an article Saigon Co.op to launch chain of convenience stores, involving Saigon Co.ops expansion plan to bring convenience to residential areas in the city. FamilyMart, Japans third-largest CS operator, will open its first outlet in Vietnam this year and plans to have a chain of up to 300 stores in the nation by 2014, excutive officer Takehiko Kigure said in Business News (2009, April 26), Japanese convenience store chain to enter Vietnam. Unfortunately, the hope that the stores would be a good alternative channel for women who worry about the quality and safety of foods at traditional markets anticipates difficulties. On the other hand, Convenience stores, the familiar distribution channel in the world, turns out to be less favorite in Vietnam. Confronting with this situation, Vietnamnet.vn raised a question Are convenience stores convenient?. A series of convenience store chains, Shop&Go, G7 Mart, Vmart, Best&Buy, Speedy, Day&Night, were open at the end of 2006 in HCM City and other localities with the hope of becoming familiar to Vietnam. However, their hope has not come true yet. By interviewing owners, the article figured out convenience stores specific difficulties in getting regular customers, having competitive price, and change Vietnam peoples traditional shopping way. Nevertheless, the question finally stands on the still. The booming development of convenience store all over the world has been mentioned a lot in the newspapers, books However, most of the information is about its high-speed growth. The published articles neither go deeper in finding the difficulties convenience store is confronted nor work out some possible solutions for this issue. Other

Group 2: Ice Cream Topic: Convenience Store Chains in Vietnam

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studies should concentrate more on obstacles preventing the convenience store growth and businessmen can have strategic vision on expand retailing market.

PART 2: METHODOLOGY 1. Participants

For the results produced, some participants were involved in the experiment process. First of all, the buying habit of Vietnamese consumers was surveyed through a combination of questionnaires , and face-to-face discussions. We randomly selected 50 customers who had purchased goods in Hapro convenience store in Dai Co Viet street, Hanoi and surveyed them. In addition, the online version of questionnaires was sent to Internet friend lists . These Internet users are living both in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city, so that the scope of the study is assured. In total, there were 100 people took place in the questionnaires part.The willingness to respond to the questionnaire and interviews and to provide quantitative information on traded volumes and values, for example, differed significantly between the contacted persons. After finishing interviewing and surveying customers, we turned interviewee into sellers includes market operators, importers and retailers, store owners. 3 vendors from groceries, Thanh Do marts and Hapro convenience stores felt very free to share us frankly and honestly information about products, type of regular customers as well as difficulties that their stores have been anticipating. All of the results were collected and carefully analyzed while being checked against information obtained from literature and other sources so that the final findings and conclusions must be valid and reliable.

Group 2: Ice Cream Topic: Convenience Store Chains in Vietnam

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2. Design
The exploratory method of research was finally chosen for this study. Exploratory research is a type of research conducted because a problem has not been clearly defined. It provides the insight into and comprehension of an issue or situation. It should draw definitive conclusions only with extreme caution. Exploratory research often relies on reviewing available literature and/or data, or qualitative approaches such as informal discussions with consumers, employees, management or competitors, and more formal approaches through in-depth interviews, focus groups, projective methods, case studies or pilot studies. Although the results of qualitative research can give some indication as to the "why", "how" and "when" something occurs, it cannot tell us "how often" or "how many." In short, exploratory research is used principally to gain a deeper understanding of something. The aim of our research is to answer these questions:

What is the current situation of convenience stors in Vietnam? Why do convenience store chains anticipate difficulties in Vietnam? How can convenience store chains become more popular among Vietnamese customers?

According to the above definition of exploratory research, we found it the most appropriate method for our research. There are two main reasons. Firstly, we noticed that not many Vietnamese have knowledge about convenience stores. They often associated convenience stores with supermarkets. Hence, we want to provide people with a basic knowledge of this type of business. In addition, the insight into the current situation of Vietnam convenience stores would also be discussed. Secondly, there were many articles 9

Group 2: Ice Cream Topic: Convenience Store Chains in Vietnam

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and some researches about convenience stores, but none of them had examined the reason why convenience stores are not successful in Vietnam market. The purpose of this paper is to explore existing problem, so exploratory method is very suitable. When doing research, we chose the interview method, which is the best way to explore and answer the question: What and Why. Generally, in order to make a comprehension of the issue, exploratory research is the most useful design.

3. Procedure
In the survey process, a list of questions was created in a link of the website surveymonkey.com. The first step was distributing survey papers to 100 participants. There were two ways to deliver : via the Internet and via hard copy. In the internet, participants would receive the link via some social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, Netlog and so on. This link was converted into two languages : Vietnamese (for people who were not good at English) and English ( for people who were interested in English). Links were accompanied with invitations and recources at the status bar of social networks. Besides, hard copies were deliver to people personally. As mentioned in the Participants part, these people were customers of convenience stores.Participants used pens to mark their choices or wrote their opinions if necessary. They accomplished the survey personally in some minutes. And the second step was collecting results. In case of completing in the website surveymonkey.com, the results were sent back to the website and analysis, integration would be done in the website. The creator signed in the website account and collected data. In case of using hard copies, the sender gathered papers and carried out to calculate. After that, the final figures were integrated from the average results of the two steps above. The second process of this experiment was interviewing. The objects were sales clerks of convenience stores. Three out of many convenience stores of Hapro Mart in 10

Group 2: Ice Cream Topic: Convenience Store Chains in Vietnam

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different locations in Hanoi were chosen to carried out the interview. Those were stores in Hang Bong street, Hue street and Luong Dinh Cua street. Interview questions includes six major questions and some extra questions in case of need.In order that sales people were not annoyed with interviewers, role-play was applied to approach naturally. After taking a stroll around the stores and buying something, interviewers implemented the task. Interviewees were asked to support facts and figures, expressed their individual opinions of their stores. It took just only 3 to 5 minutes per person. All responses were collected by videotaping. As a result, the difficulties in development of c-stores in Vietnam were figured out more accuracy.

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Group 2: Ice Cream Topic: Convenience Store Chains in Vietnam

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PART 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

After doing research, we have almost solved the three key research questions. In order to make the paper clear and easy to follow, this part is arranged according to these research questions.

Fan Introduction nay chua okie

1. What is tThe current situation of convenience stores in Vietnam?
One of the primary cores through survey and interview process is to figure out what is the current situation of convenience stores in Vietnam. In other words, the answer of this research question will provide a look at the position of convenience stores in Vietnam market. At the beginning, CS seemed to be a very potential investment into Vietnam market. Here are the numbers and events of some typical convernience stores in Vietnam: 8/2006: Saigon Co.op set to expand convenience stores chain with VND 3050mil invest in each store. Saigon Co.op aimed to raise the total number of Co.op Mart supermarkets from the current 15 to 100 by 2015; 5/2008: Circle K signed up a franchise partner in Vietnam as economic growth spurs spending in the country; 4/2009: FamilyMart Co. planed to set up its first convenience store in Vietnam later this year and raise the number of its outlets in the country to around 300 over the next five years. However, after some years going into operation, the new business is currently facing a difficult situation. Firstly, convenience store is not familiar with Vietnamese customers. The concept of Convenience store remains relatively new and unclear. Vietnamese customers still mistake it with other kinds of retailing such as supermarket, market According to our survey (Question 1), the mistake is up to 42%. They do not know how convenience stores look like, what kind of product the stores sell. As a result, it is hard for that type of retail to become familiar with and attract customers, let alone regular ones. Secondly, in comparison with other kinds, convenience store seems less favorable. To be more specific, convenience store owners have to compete with a variety of other business selling product types, such as: Market; Grocery; Supermarket and so on; then it is such

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Group 2: Ice Cream Topic: Convenience Store Chains in Vietnam

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a hardship to make convenience store the most marketable one. This could be easily found in the table 1 below:

Convenience Store, 14.30% Market, 39.30% Supermarket, 34.50%

Grocery, 12%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

Table Figure 3. 1: Place where customers buy essential product

As the table illustrates, the number of customers purchasing products in convenience stores only accounted for a half of the one in supermarkets and even less than a half of the one in markets. The analysis of the statistic information presented in table1 reveals that convenience store operator somehow cannot meet the requirements of Vietnam market in some certain aspects, this explains why a number of customers buying essential products in supermarket and market instead of doing so in convenience store. In the interview made at convenience store on Hue Street, Ms. Lan acknowledged that this CS does not have many regular customers while most of visitors to the stores are nonresidents.The residents like going to groceries and traditional markets. Finally, during the research process, we recognized the shut down of some chains of convenience store. Confronted with a heap of difficulties, CS in Vietnam are falling into poor marketability, even in case of ending up their business. The closed CS chain, G7 in Ha Noi, is one example of unsuccessful operation. The hope of making the new retail model familiar with Vietnamese consumers has not come true yet.

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Group 2: Ice Cream Topic: Convenience Store Chains in Vietnam

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2. Why do The reasons why convenience stores anticipate difficulties in Vietnam?

The global convenience store industry has illustrated tremendous growth. It is becoming a new element in the retail sector of a growing number of advanced economies.The convenience stores in lots of countries fit the contemporary life style. Curiously, it has been a significant increase. It sells time and merchandise conveniences for consumers, introducing logistics systems. However, it has been facing with plenty of difficulties when being launched in Vietnam. What are the reasons for these obstacles? Question number six of the survey Mark criterion which you feel satisfied or unsatisfied when you purchase goods in convenience stores has identified main things that make Vietnamese convenience stores not popular among residents.
Satisfied 100.00% 90.00% 80.00% 70.00% 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% Price Convenient location of store A wide variety of goods 69.70% 70.30% 52.70% 63.60% 57.50% 30.30% 29.70% 47.30% 36.40% 42.50% Unsatisfied

Table Figure 3.2: Criterion which customers feel satisfied or unsatisfied

when purchasing goods in convenience stores

The first reason may cause convenience stores failure is the attitude of the staffs. After visiting some convenience stores in Ha Noi, we found that convenience stores here 14

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have not get international standard: the opening time, and the staffs attitude Although many people remain active until late at night, this new model of retail closes in the early evening (about 9 pm). This restricts customers shopping demand. Furthermore, many people complaint about service attitude in those convenience stores. The staff lacks of enthusiasms and activeness. In our survey, some people claimed that they are not satisfied with convenience stores due to the attitude of staffs. On the other hand, sellers in markets are often very helpful and do not mind to suggest customers the best choice of products , so do the employees of supermarkets. Apart from not getting international standard, global economic recession has impact on the launching of convenience stores as well. Although Vietnam has not directly been affected by the global economic recession, which started in the third quarter of 2008, it still suffered from some negative effects in terms of the huge FDI flow into the country each year. At the deepest point in the recession, most people were worried about an uncertain future, and reduced expenditure. The whole market and some traditional channels suffered the effects of the recession in the first half of 2009. It was the time when convenience store started in our country. Most retailers saw a period of sharp decline in demand at the beginning of 2009, which continued until the second half of the year. The other reason seems to be the high price of goods in convenience stores. In a developing country, price is a very decisive factor to the success of products. Only a small part of customers feel satisfied with price of products in convenience stores, it is usually more expensive than in market and supermarket. From question 5 of the survey, 53% of people interviewed consider price as one important factor. People say that they would rather buy food and essential products in market, with a little lower quality, than pay more to shop in a convenience store. The last but most important reason we have found out is the buying habit of Vietnamese customers. First, Vietnamese have the habit of buying fresh food everyday, which is totally different from other countries. They often go to market to buy fresh pork, beef and vegetables. Convenience stores can not fully supply the demand of this type of food. On the other hand, Vietnamese people associated food in these stores as frozen and unnatural food. Therefore, domestic customers only go to supermarkets and convenience 15

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stores to buy canned food or cosmetic products (as resulted from the interview with shop assistants). But actually they often choose supermarkets because of their wider range of products. Besides, the convenience store, in the eyes of many Vietnamese people, is something luxurious. They have to pay additional prices for what is called high quality , such as air-conditional, staffs uniform, renting feeAs a result, they would like to spend time on buying merchandise in traditional shops and markets, which is normal and popular with everyone. The fixed opinion is very difficult to change only after a short time. Thieu 1 conclusion

3. How can convenience store chains become more popular among Vietnamese customers?chuyen thanh dang tran thuat
From the results of the survey and interview, it is not difficult to identify why the development of convenience stores has signs of slowdown, in spite of investment on a great scale of many brand names such as: G7 Mart, Family Mart, 7-Eleven, etc. For the purpose of researching the reality of retailing, focusing on convenience stores chain, this paper would like to give some recommendations to the long term strategies in Vietnam market. One remarkable point is that investors have to answer these two questions: Who are objects to aim at?, Where to locate the stores. Answering to the first question, the fact is major consumers of convenience stores in Vietnam are housewives. However, housewives are faithful to purchase fresh food in market and prefer to go shopping in supermarkets at weekend. Because fresh food in market is usually latest food, they are very green, new and nutritious; meanwhile fresh food in convenience stores is often refrigerated. Supermarkets such as Big C, Fivimart, Intimex, Metro, etc with profuse goods meet fully the demand than convenience stores. Therefore, convenience stores meet with difficulties in competing. A solution for this problem is concentrating on other objects, for example drivers and people who are in need at midnight. With the second question, they should be located alongside busy roads or crowded street, in addition, the positions at petrol stations or near railway stations, bus-stops, etc are good choices. These positions are optimal as they are crowded and needed places. People drop in store to buy 16

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anything when they are in need or they wait in. From that point, shopping habit will be taken shape in their sense. Another significant point is standard form of stores like in Western countries and the US. In developed countries, the amount of goods is huge as the definition: a store or a shop that sells essential items, such as: candy, ice-cream, cigarette, newspapers and magazines, toiletries and hygiene products, processed food, groceries, etc and part of gas stations, money orders and wire transfer services or liquor products.Convenience stores in Vietnam should expand various kinds of products, especially essential goods, and intensify to supply services at midnight, the time when supermarkets, markets and groceries close. Most of convenience stores in Vietnam make the consumer confuse the difference between them and supermarkets or groceries. Many people answered Hapro or Family Mart are supermarkets when they were asked. For this reason, convenience stores in Vietnam should focus on time service and typical goods to distinguish themselves. The final point, also the ominous sign, is the shop-assistants attitude. In accordance with our survey and interview results, many customers felt unsatisfied with stores staff. In the survey question number six, some participants added their opinions about the satisfaction or unsatisfaction when purchasing in convenience stores: Question: Mark criterion which you feel satisfied or unsatisfied when you purchase goods in convenience stores? Other answers:- The attitude of the seller was so bad, I felt unsatisfied with payment system - Do not like the staffs attitude This is a negative side in competitive advantages of Vietnam convenience stores. Finding a remedy for such problem much depends on shop owners. It is the thing to recruit welleducated employees or frequently train the staff, not only the specialist knowledge but also the attitude in dealing with customers. The recommendations are provided after studying consumers reactions and responses on the side of convenience stores manager board. Nevertheless, the prerequisite for future development of convenience stores in Vietnam is much conditional upon investors strategies.

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PART 4: CONCLUSION
This study set out to consider the extent to which difficulties and challenges have been affecting the development of convenience stores chains in Vietnam market. The finding indicated that the concept of convenience stores has still been appearing to be an unpopular notion in the retail business. It is a matter of fact that many people looked puzzled when they were made request for recognizing some provided brand names. One of the most significant results from this study is the explanation to these obstacles. We feel it true that the primary causes to those problems involve poor staff training, inadequate international standard, unreasonable price and Vietnamese buying habit. Those problems cannot be solved overnight. Another significant finding relates to some possible solutions to those problems. If the convenience store owners still yearn for enlarging their business in Vietnam market, one recommendation might be to change the operating system so as to adapt to subjective buying habit of Vietnamese consumers. More specifically, this could be a reform regarding products, staff training and services sides. These findings hopefully will contribute to convenience store in particular and to retail business in common saying; So that, in this way or another way, they can find the most suitable way for operation in Vietnam to find target customers and cover much higher market share. As for investors, they could prove the strong points and overcome obstacles by cautiously calculating and analyzing typical traits of Vietnam market so as to make smart investing choices. To conclude, this research has provided readers an overall look into a new kind of retailing and examined the reasons why it is unfamiliar with Vietnamese. Nevertheless, since the CS is a new business in Vietnam, it is not easy to find information about it. The secondary information is mainly about convenience stores in foreign countries where we can see the blooming growth whilst there are only some articles on this area in our country. Apart from the lack of information as well as within our limited knowledge and time, making effective recommendations and suggestions for tribulations of convenience 18

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stores is not much easy for us. Therefore, additional researches on convenience stores are recommended, which are both to confirm the findings of our research and to examine the problems more thoroughly. Based on such findings and on the quantitative results of the current paper, further researches may focus on how to improve the quality of convenience stores, or how to change the local customers buying habit. Accordingly, effectual solutions to push this brand-new retails expansion can be figured out. Another idea that researchers may be interested in is to compare Vietnamese convenience stores with international ones. The result of that study may help the CS owners clarify their almost all shortcomings and overcome them. Hopefully, we could see the potential development of convenience stores in our country, especially in Ha Noi.

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REFERENCES

1.

HnPaya-Aya

(2008)

Circle

convenience

stores

to

hit

Vietnam,

www.marketing4daily.blogspot.com. 2. Quoc Hung (2008) Saigon Co.op to launch chain of convenience stores, The Saigon Times Daily. 3. Robert E. Bainbridge (2003) Convenience stores and retail fuel properties: Essential appraisal issues. Chicago: Appraisal Institute. 4. Terry Monroe (2009) The art of buying and selling a convenience store, Self published. 5. (1984) Convenience Stores Pose threat to the supermarkets, The Business Times. Singapore. 6. (2010) Global convenience store market analysis, RNCOS E-Services Private Limited, p.115. 7. (2009) Japanese convenience store chain to enter Vietnam,

www.lookatvietnam.com.

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APPENDIX 1. Survey questions

1. Where do you usually buy essential goods?

A. Supermarket C. Convenience store

B. Market D. Grocery

2. According to you, what type of business do Hapro, G7, Family Mart belong to?

A. Grocery C. Market

B. Supermarket D. Convenience store

3. Do you know about convenience stores chains, such as: G7, Hapro or Family Mart?

A. Yes
4. How do you define a convenience store?

B. No

A. It is similar to stalls in market B. It is similar to supermarket C. It focuses on selling essential goods. Goods are arranged on the buffet shelves like in the supermarket but with smaller scale
5. If No.1 is the most important criteria for you choose a product in a place, number from No.1 to No.4 of which one you think is the most and less important criteria.

A. Price
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Group 2: Ice Cream Topic: Convenience Store Chains in Vietnam B. Quality of goods C. A variety of goods D. Convenient transportation

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6. Mark criteria which you feel satisfied or unsatisfied when you purchase goods in convenience stores.

Satisfied A. Price B. Product quality C. Convenient location of store D. Logical and in-order arrangement. E. A Variety of goods

Unsatisfied

F. Others

7. Do you believe in the development of convenience store in Vietnam market?

A. Yes, why not? B. No way!

C. Maybe, Im not sure. D. God know!

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2. Interview questions
1. Which object are the major customers of your store? (E.g.: Foreigners,

senior citizen, housewives or students?)

2. Do customers often buy fresh food in your store? (If not, it can be referred

convenience stores dont meet the need in supplying fresh food which is essential demand of Vietnamese customers).
3. Does your store have any promotional program aiming at customers loyalty? Does your store have kind of reward card (to earn shopping points)

for regular customers?

4. Do you intend to enlarge store scale in the future time? (If no, why? If yes,

then what the biggest challenges are?)

5. Can you tell me several best-seller goods in your store? Or which ones are

easy to be inventory in one-month business circle.

6. Do customers often buy retail (E.g.: A shampoo bottle or a chocolate bar

only) or a large amount of stuff in one time?

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3. Interview and survey results

Interview results
Objects: Convenience stores chain of Hapro Mart at 3 different locations in Hanoi. Interviewees: Shop assistants and the owners. Store No.1: Hang Bong street Store No.2: Luong Dinh Cua street Store No.3: Hue street Content: Question 1: Which object are the major customers of your store? (E.g.: Foreigners, senior citizen, housewives or students?)

Store No.1:Mainly foreigners because this store located in the Old quarter street. Store No.2: Housewives, people living in the neighborhood Store No.3: We have many kinds of customers. But, our main customers are house-wives and foreigners.

Question 2: Do customers often buy fresh food in your store? (If not, it can be referred convenience stores dont meet the need in supplying fresh food which is essential demand of Vietnamese customers).

Store No.1: Rarely Store No.2: Not much Store No.3:Yes, our convenience store sells lots of fresh food and customers frequently go here to buy them to prepare their meals.

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Question 3: Does your store have any promotional program aiming at customers loyalty? Does your store have kind of reward card (to earn shopping points) for regular customers?

Store No.1: There are only promotion programs in special occasions like Tet . There is no reward card. Store No.2: Its up to each type of product and is quite seasoning. For instance, more promotional programs when it comes to some big holiday (Tet Holiday, National Independent Holiday, International Womens day, etc.))

Store No.3: At this time, we have not had that program aiming at customers loyalty. However, we often have promoting programs on special occasions such as International Womens Day, Independence Day, Tet Holiday, Mid-Autumn Festival On each occasion, we focus on specific goods to make discounts.

Question 4: Do you intend to enlarge store scale in the future time? (If no, why? If yes, then what the biggest challenges are?) Store No.1 : It depends on the profit we earn. However, it is not our business . The manager and director of the cooperation will decide. Store No.2 : The store owner reject to give answer for this question Store No.3 : About this, I have not had further plan. Now we want to pay attention to making this store better. Question 5: Can you tell me several best-seller goods in your store? Or which ones are easy to be inventory in one-month business circle? Store No.1: Milk, instant noodle, yogurt , shampoo and so on. Store No.2: Some essential goods, like shampoo, cooking oil, washing power,etc.

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Store No.3: We sell many sorts of goods: food, canned products, electronics I see that food is the best-seller goods in our store. Most customers come here to buy ingredients for meals. So canned products, fresh food are consumed a lot. Question 6: Do customers often buy retail (E.g.: A shampoo bottle or a chocolate bar only) or a large amount of stuff in one time? Store No.1: retail

Store No.2: Usually they buy in a fairly big amount of goods ( to save time and money as we have promotional programs applied when customers buy products in a large amount.

Store No.3: It depends on each customer, time as well as purpose. We have many customers, including housewives, foreigners, students Therefore, they usually buy retail. They sometimes buy a large amount of stuff.

Extra questions: 1. Which points of time in a day are the busiest? Store No.1: It depends, but mostly in the afternoon, when working time is over. 2. Compared with supermarkets and groceries, is the number of customers your store big? Store No.1: I have no idea

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Survey results
Total started survey: 100 Total completed survey: 100 (100%)

1. According to you, what type of business do such stores like Hapro, G7,
Family Mart belong to?
Grocery 6%

Supermarket 35% Convenience Store 58%

Market 1%

Skipped question: 1

2. Where do you usually buy essential goods?

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Convenience Store, 14.30% Market, 39.30% Supermarket, 34.50%

Grocery, 12%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

Skipped question: 0

3. Do you know about convenience store chains, such as: G7, Hapro or
Family Mart?

70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%

Yes, 66.3%

No, 33.70%

Skipped question: 1

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4. How do you define a convenience store?

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

It is similar to stalls in market (2.4%) It is similar to supermarket (6.1%) It focuses on selling essential goods. Goods are arranged on the buffet shelves like in the supermarket but with smaller scale (91.5%)

Skipped questions: 2

5. As for you, how important are these criteria in choosing a product in a

place? Please judge them according to each criterions importance.

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Group 2: Ice Cream Topic: Convenience Store Chains in Vietnam

Very important Important

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Not so important Not important at all 1.20% 27.70% 25.60%

100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%

3.70% 9.60%

1.20%

31.30%

53% 47% 43.90%

67.50%

33.70%

25.30%

29.30%

Price

Quality of goods A wide variety of Convenience in goods transportation

Skipped question: 1

6. Mark criterion which you feel satisfied or unsatisfied when you purchase
goods in convenience stores.

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Satisfied 100.00% 90.00% 80.00% 70.00% 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% Price Convenient location of store A wide variety of goods 69.70% 70.30% 52.70% 63.60% 57.50% 30.30% 29.70% 47.30% 36.40% 42.50% Unsatisfied

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Skipped questions: 6 Other answers: -I have never bought anything at convenience store before, so I have not pay attention. -I do not know. -The attitude of the seller was so bad, I felt unsatisfied with payment system. - Do not like the staffs attitude

7. Do you believe in the development of convenience stores in Vietnam

market?

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7.30% Yes, why not? No way! 36.60% 1.20% 54.90% Maybe, I'm not sure God knows!

Skipped questions: 2

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