Valentine's gift market is gloomy like never before due to concerns about the Corona epidemic

Variety of products

This year's Valentine's gift market is quite diverse and stores have prepared early. Photo: Thanh Phuc

In preparation for Valentine's Day this year, flower shop owners have imported many unique types of flowers: hundred-petal roses, imported roses of various colors, Peruvian lilies, tana daisies... in large quantities, wrapped in tissue paper, glossy paper, gift boxes or luxurious baskets with prices ranging from 300,000 VND - 2 million VND/bunch, basket (depending on the type). In particular, this year, wax roses with bright colors and 99 flowers/bunch have been imported in large quantities, with the lowest price being 400,000 VND/bunch, the highest being 1,000,000 VND/bunch.

Mr. Nguyen Duc Anh, owner of a fresh flower shop on Nguyen Van Cu Street (Vinh City) said: “The types of flowers are diverse, from popular to high-end, the prices are also different, from hundreds to millions of dong, serving different customer groups. The most popular is still red roses. Some people only give one symbolic flower with other gifts, some people order a bouquet of 99 flowers, some people order giant bouquets…”.

Besides flowers and chocolates, to welcome this loving holiday, many stores and shops also import gifts such as cosmetics, stuffed animals, clothes, and shoes. Especially gifts that come in pairs such as shirts, shoes, watches, couple rings, couple necklaces, couple cups, etc.

Unprecedented slump

Due to the complicated developments of the epidemic, 100% of university and college students in the province are on leave from school, so the Valentine market has lost its "main" customers, causing products serving Valentine's Day to be sluggish. Photo: Thanh Phuc

Taking a look around the market on Valentine’s Day this year, in general, items such as flowers and gifts are quite sluggish. If in previous years, shops, flower shops, gift shops near universities and colleges were bustling with buyers and sellers, this year, due to the epidemic, 100% of students are off school, so these shops are in an unprecedented state of sluggishness.

Ms. Nguyen Kim Dung, owner of a souvenir shop near Vinh University, shared: “The source of goods for Valentine's Day was imported right after Tet in large quantities, so when the announcement was made that students were off school, we anticipated that sales would be slow because teddy bears, chocolates, and souvenirs mainly serve this group. However, we did not expect it to be this bad. Up to now, we have only sold a few boxes of chocolate, and not a single stuffed animal has been sold yet.”

Although on her personal Facebook page, Dang Thu Trang, a student at Vinh University of Medicine, quickly posted the information: "Serving couples during the epidemic season, the shop accepts to ship flowers and gifts (free of shipping fee) to those who live far away from each other", the amount of roses and chocolates that Trang and her group of friends bought together to sell are still unsold.

Trang said: “On this day last year, the whole group pooled together to buy 5 million worth of goods, sold them in 3 days (February 12, 13, 14), and each person shared nearly 1 million in profit. This year, with this situation, it is difficult to recover the capital, let alone make a profit”...