Retail chains live well, separate shopping malls get worn out While a lot of shopping malls in Hanoi and HCM City are deserted with idle premises, big retail chains have been fully occupied, though the business of some tenants does not go well. Famous fashion brands continue expanding business   The first Robins center of the Thai Central Group on the 10,000 square meters on the B1 basement of Royal City Shopping Mall in Hanoi is getting ready. Alan Thomson, President of Robinson Department Store Public, which manages Robins center in Vietnam, said about 100 fashion brands would be present here. These include Puppies and Scholl (shoes), “Gift Gate Sanrio” (children’s products), or Supersports, a Thai sportswear brand. Robins would also make debut in HCM City by the end of this year. The Japanese leading retailer Aeon has opened its first shopping mall in Vietnam, located at Celadon City urban area in Tan Phu district, HCM City. Yasuo Nishitohge, General Director of Aeon Vietnam, said besides the one-stop shopping model, Aeon Mall Tan Phu Celadon also offers another business area, where 120 stalls are ready for lease. He affirmed that besides the international famous brands, there would also be the well known brands from Japan, including Scarlette or Sicily underwear. The retail chain plans to develop 20 shopping malls in Vietnam. Parkson is believed to be one of the earliest retailers in the Vietnamese market. When it set up its first shopping mall in Vietnam eight years ago, it took hundreds of international fashion and cosmetics brands, now available at 75 Parkson’s shopping malls in Malaysia and China, with itself to Vietnam. Parkson Vietnam targets the medium and high class consumers in Vietnam, especially the youth who love branded goods. Therefore, it has been continuously inviting more and more new brands to Parkson’s shopping malls. Encouraged by the high annual growth rate of 20 percent in the first years in Vietnam, Parkson plans to open two more shopping malls a year in provinces and cities. While a lot of shopping mall developers fail to attract tenants, the luxurious foreign shopping malls still can lure the most famous international brands. It seems that the economic crisis does not hurt them. Though the majority of Vietnamese have to fasten their belt in the economic difficulties, the shopping malls still have been full of visitors and buyers over the last few years. Shopping mall developers, businessmen hold hands to advance A marketing expert noted shopping mall developers and the tenants, who can occupy the retail premises on advantageous positions, usually sign the “fellow-traveler” agreements, i.e. that the tenants would follow the developers to the new shopping malls. The owner of a fashion shop at a shopping mall in district 7, HCM City, said she has set up a new shop there after gaining successes at the shopping malls of the same developer in district 1 and 5. She said the shopping mall manager has successfully built up a strong brand, which has become well known among the youth who loves fashionable and branded goods. “While others only focus on attracting as many tenants as possible, the developer has always been trying to help tenants develop their business by running sale promotion campaigns, organizing events to attract visitors or renovating interior decoration,” she said. TBKTSG