Shopping in Ho Chi Minh City

Shopping in Ho Chi Minh City

You may be said to have never visited Ho Chi Minh City if you haven’t shopped around in this biggest commercial area of Vietnam. Rightfully so! Ho Chi Minh City (also called Saigon) is Vietnam’s shopping hub, where you can buy almost everything on earth, from life’s bare necessities to the most luxurious products, from authentic Vietnamese origin to most well – known international brands. But the interesting thing is not just the what, it’ also the where and the how.

Most popular shopping sites in Saigon are long established traditional markets with famous names like Ben Thanh, Binh Tay, An Dong, Tan Dinh, Saigon Square, Dan Sinh. Just wandering along arrays of stalls there, you stand a great chance of stocking up all sorts of things at very affordable prices. Especially, if you are a fashion afictionado, you could dress yourself up from head to toe with merely several hundreds of thousand dong in hand. The key is to be a vigilant bargain hunter and feel free to give yourself a hefty discount off the first price shopclerks tell you.

If you feel for a modern and luxurious shopping atmosphere, Saigon offers a long list of commercial centers led by Diamond Plaza, Zen Plaza, Parkson, Superbowl, Thuong xa Tax, Co-op mart and so on. Luckily enough, you may set off right in the middle of the City grand “sale – off” season. Then you could own classy, well – branded products at slashed prices , of course, with no need to haggle.

Last but not least, there are some streets in Saigon which are specially good for shopping certain products. For example, if you are scouring for a mobile phone, then go straight to February 3rd Street ( 3 Thang 2). Likewise, remember to drop by Nguyen Oanh, Nguyen Kiem streets for clocks and watches, Le Loi street for any hardware items , or scores of shops around District 1 for lacquerware, just to name a few.