The new face of shopping in Vietnam

Street traders are getting much less business

Supermarket shopping is booming in Vietnam - but at a price.

After years of relying on the limited goods available in state-run stores, Vietnamese people are embracing new products and lifestyles - right off the shelves.

But as with so much of the development in Vietnam, changes which benefit those with rising disposable incomes are increasing the wealth gap - and not everyone is seeing the benefits.

At the Intimex store, one of Hanoi's newest supermarkets, many people are simply there to take in the new experience - bright lights, thousands of items, air conditioning and piped music, together with an entertainment centre, coffee shop and beauty salon.

"I really enjoy coming to the supermarket," one shopper told the BBC World Service's Outlook programme.

"For one thing, the service is much better than at the old markets or in small shops. It's good value here. And I think the products are real, not fake."

'Freeing women'

Local real estate agents report that more than 30 supermarkets have opened in Hanoi alone in the last decade.

People who for years knew only the hardship of war and famine are now learning to consume - and are also browsing for new ideas.

The supermarkets are well-stocked and clean

"Our aim is to free women from so many chores," said Nguyen Thi Khanh An, director of the new Intimex supermarket near central Hanoi's Hoan Kiem lake.

"We want to fulfil their dream of being able to buy ready-made meals - with good quality at a reasonable price - so instead of shopping and cooking, they can spend more time with their families."

Although Intimex leans heavily to Vietnamese-made goods, there are regular promotions for imported brands of iced tea or shampoo.

The boom in imports has been so successful that city authorities have become concerned at the growth of thousands of tiny family-run shops which clutter the pavements - all selling similar soap powder, vinegar, oil, biscuits and batteries.

The growing economy and modernisation is making visible differences to people's lives in Vietnam, with some observers claiming that happy consumers are less likely to challenge the authority of the ruling Communist Party.

Poverty trap

But the success is creating a growing wealth gap.

"I'm selling cotton, pens, handy fans, combs, fingernail clippers, brushes - but I only have a few customers," said 40-year-old Ho Thi Thai, a street trader.

The supermarkets are part of Vietnam's 'opening up' to markets

"There are more sellers than buyers.

"People prefer to go to the supermarket."

The knock-on effect of the modernisation is that the poor - who cannot afford to shop at the supermarkets - are unable to compete for the custom of those who can.

"We don't have a good education, so we earn money by selling things like these," Ms Thai said.

"Supermarkets will not hire us as we don't have any qualifications and we are too old."

There is a double impact on their trading, because supermarket products are almost invariably better quality.

"People can buy these cheap slippers from me, but now they're going to supermarket and it's getting more difficult for me to find customers," Tran Thi Dzoanh, a slipper-seller in Hanoi, told Outlook.

There are thousands of poor people like Dzoanh in the city.

She spends every day under her conical hat, pushing her bicycle - with plastic slippers piled high on its handlebars.

But the problems for street sellers look likely to get worse, as city authorities are pushing for the development of more suburban supermarkets.

They see them as a way to modernise lifestyles and ease traffic problems as part of developing what the ruling Communist party calls a market economy with socialist characteristics.

It will be a test of their development policies to see how these street sellers are feeding their families a few years from now.