36 hour christmas shopping

Many coffee shops in Hanoi closed on January 22, the first day of Tet , and started welcoming patrons again the following day. Highlands Coffee, The Coffee House, Phuc Long, Starbucks and other coffee chains didn't raise prices on Tet to entice people. Several smaller shops are just charging an extra VND5,000-VND10,000 (21 cents-43 cents) for each drink. A coffee shop in Hanoi is full of customers on January 23, 2023, the second day of the Lunar New Year. Photo by VnExpress/Mai NLH There has been a noticeable increase in the number of young people seen at downtown establishments since the Lunar New Year's Eve. Huong Mai, a resident of Hanoi's Nam Tu Liem District, had to walk to a number of cafés on Ly Thuong Kiet Street at around 7 p.m. to find one with a table big enough for eight people. "Most stores have a high volume of customers coming in and out at any given time," said Mai. "The wait time for refreshments is also longer than usual." Not only do … [Read more...] about Coffee shops, eateries packed with customers on first days of Lunar New Year

For the majority of overseas Vietnamese, the end of the old year and the beginning of the new one mean a lot to them when living far from homeland. In the absence of glorious peach or apricot blossoms without hours of gathering around a warm fire and watching a cauldron of sticky rice cakes, Vietnamese people living abroad look forward to the Vietnamese Tet. It makes their nostalgia strong for Tet - the occasion for reuniting with family and spending time with friends after a long period of separation from Covid-19. A Tet corner in the house of an overseas Vietnamese in Melbourne, Australia. Photo: Mia Le In 2023, the Year of Cat comes earlier than usual, only three weeks after the Gregorian New Year’s Eve, so Europeans have got back to their usual busy life after the long Christmas break. In order to keep up with their fellows, Vietnamese expatriates continue their business and school schedules without enjoying a long holiday for Tet. But that does not … [Read more...] about Overseas Vietnamese eagerly await Tet and spring

Many large supermarkets in Vietnam’s economic hub Ho Chi Minh City have been filled with shoppers over the past few days, even very late at night, as the Vietnamese traditional Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday is only two days away. As the waves of shoppers have been on the rise, a lot of supermarkets said they would extend their opening hours and increase their stock to serve the increasing purchase power. Late at night on Wednesday, the Emart supermarket in Go Vap District was jammed with shoppers, from counters of goods to check-out areas, leaving almost no empty spaces. ‘Banh chung’ (stuffed sticky rice cake), one of the traditional Tet items in Vietnam, is seen on display at a supermarket in Ho Chi Minh City in this image. Photo : Nguyen Tri / Tuoi Tre The two spacious parking lots outside the supermarket were fully packed and many shoppers could not find any space left for their motorbikes. In addition to selling goods by packs with a fixed weight, Emart has … [Read more...] about Ho Chi Minh City supermarkets overcrowded with shoppers as Tet nears

Heavy snow blanketed wide swathes of Japan on Wednesday, snarling traffic, forcing hundreds of flight cancellations and disrupting train travel, leaving at least one person dead. An unusually cold weather front and extreme low pressure systems set snow falling and strong winds blowing across Japan from Tuesday. Snow was particularly heavy on the side of the nation facing the Sea of Japan, with the city of Maniwa in western Japan hit with a record 93 cm (36 inches) in the 24 hours to 8:00 a.m. (2300 GMT) on Wednesday. One person had died as a result of the storm and two other deaths were being investigated as related to the storm as of Wednesday morning, chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a news conference. No further details were immediately available. Domestic airlines including ANA and Japan Airlines cancelled more than 300 flights, while bullet train services were suspended or delayed in northern Japan, media reported. On a highway in central Japan, cars and … [Read more...] about Heavy snow, deep cold halts transport across Japan, at least one dead

According to the General Statistics Office, the retail industry last year saw a sharp increase of 10.15 per cent compared to 2021, while total retail sales of consumer goods and services in 2022 rose by 15 per cent compared to 2019. A survey of 15,000 sellers by management platform Sapo showed that the general situation in 2022 in terms of recovery was mixed. Even though 42 per cent of sellers recorded a revenue drop compared to 2021, the percentage of sellers with revenue growth accounted for 37.7 per cent, in which the number of sellers with growth of over 30 per cent in revenues held 6.36 per cent. Omnichannel activity boosts overall 2022 retail performance, Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) Areas that recorded the highest growth were in fashion/accessories, cosmetics, grocery supermarkets, and toys. Methods to stimulate purchasing power included promotional programmes (65.6 per cent), loyalty programmes (22.6 per cent), and various after-sale customer care methods … [Read more...] about Omnichannel activity boosts overall 2022 retail performance

The General Offensive and Uprising in Spring 1968 forced the U.S. to stop bombing the North and start negotiation with the attendance of representatives of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam. This was the victory at first with strategic importance. A breakthrough The General Offensive and Uprising in Spring 1968 gave the U.S. a great blow, bringing a deep change in the U.S. invasion in Vietnam while disheartening the enemy’s spirit, forcing the U.S. to join negotiation. “The U.S. was aware that Vietnamese people could not be defeated by war. The only way for them was to negotiate. Therefore, the enemy was forced to negotiate with Vietnam at the Paris Conference. The Vietnamese side would like to open a new battlefield on diplomacy via the conference. We also knew that at the negotiating table, we could not get what we could not get on the battlefield,” according to reporter Ha Dang, a former member of the negotiation delegation of the National Liberation Front of … [Read more...] about Road to victory: Part 1 – From the battlefield to the conference

Vung Tau, 100 kilometers from Ho Chi Minh City, is not just a warm and sunny destination with pleasant temps that are perfect for beach activities, it also offers a wide range of delicious dishes. If you're planning to visit Vung Tau, but still don't know what to eat, here are some of the dishes that you should not miss when there. Lau ca duoi - stingray hotpot This hotpot is one of the most favored dishes among travelers. Only the adult stingrays have bones, but they are soft and crunchy, and thus the stingray meat is firm. A hotpot set includes marinated stingray cut into pieces and a sour and spicy broth made of various ingredients. A side of sour bamboo, water morning glory, elephant ear taro, herbs, fresh vermicelli plus chili fish sauce are served along with the hotpot. Diners can enjoy stingray hotpot all year round since stingrays are always available in Vung Tau. Soft stingray meat cooked in a rich, sweet and sour broth. Photo by VnExpress/Khanh Thien. … [Read more...] about 6 foods worth trying while staying in Vung Tau

A farmer harvests coffee cherries in Kon Tum province. (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnamese coffee industry has made steady headway in the international competitiveness rankings with a processing capacity of 2.36 million tonnes per year, according to Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien. Tien was speaking at the international conference on coffee on December 11. The Deputy Minister said Vietnam had 710,000ha of coffee with a yield of 2.7 tonnes per hectare in 2021, three times higher than the average global yield. Between 2021 and 2022, the country produced 1.7 million tonnes and exported 3.9 billion USD worth of coffee, up 31.3% year-by-year. "With farmers of great industry and firms of great adaptability, Vietnam has moved up to the top of the world's largest robusta coffee producers," said Tien. Amid the unfavourable global conditions, he urged the Vietnam Coffee Cocoa Association (Vicofa) to push ahead with sustainable … [Read more...] about Sustainable development key to success of Vietnamese coffee

On the morning of January 9, Nghia and 18 of his colleagues were sorting hundreds of shoes and bags for cleaning, repairing or changing accessories at a four-story residence on Doi Can Street in Ba Dinh District. "The number of customers is quite large, but in the last month of the year we only dare accept a maximum of 400 items a day so that we can complete before Tet," the 31-year-old says. Nghia, who is from Hanoi, has been collecting shoes since he was a child, and meticulously maintains, washes and shines them regularly whether they are costly or inexpensive. In the beginning he did not know how to clean them, and did not feel safe about giving them to a shoeshine person. He then discovered that professional shoe polishing supplies were available overseas, and purchased and used them. Trong Nghia inspects a shoe that has been cleaned. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Nguyen "Using cleaning products appropriate for each material not only helps shoes seem fresh but … [Read more...] about Hanoi man makes a fortune by servicing luxury handbags, shoes

TOKYO -- Japanese supermarket owner Hiromichi Akiba has built his bustling business through close ties with his neighbourhood - the reason, he says, he can't make the price hikes on his wares that would allow him to give his workers a pay rise. Steep price increases on surging raw materials costs are squeezing Japan's workers, as years of deflation or minimal rises give way to 41-year-high inflation of 4%. And, while major companies are offering raises amid government pressure, many of the small and midsize firms that employ the vast number of Japanese workers cannot keep up. But the situation is especially hard for retail businesses like Akiba's because the cost rises are so widespread that virtually nothing is untouched, preventing pay rises. "The fact is that we are barely making a profit," said the genial 54-year-old, who prides himself on the close ties he's built with the customers in his western Tokyo neighbourhood over the past three decades. "If we were able to pass … [Read more...] about In a Tokyo supermarket, signs of struggle for Japanese business