Ready-made dishes attract customers, prices of goods are stable on the occasion of the 15th day of the 7th lunar month

Since the beginning of the seventh lunar month, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hang's clean food store (Dien Chau) has received many orders for ready-made offerings. Photo: Thanh Phuc

According to Vietnamese custom, the Full Moon Festival in July is an important holiday of the year, so every family prepares a neat and thoughtful tray of offerings for worship. In the Full Moon Festival market this year, the ready-made tray service attracts customers, while other items have stable prices and slow consumption.

Since early July, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hang, owner of a clean food store in Dien Thanh (Dien Chau), has posted on Facebook and Zalo an advertisement for a service of preparing trays of offerings for the Full Moon Festival to serve customers. In addition to sticky rice with chicken, banh troi, banh chung, cha cuon, gio... she also accepts to prepare a complete offering of fruits, incense, candles, and votive offerings according to customers' needs.

Vegetarian dishes are also quite popular during Vu Lan festival. Photo: Thanh Phuc

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hang said: “Because of its convenience and time-saving nature, the service of preparing ready-made trays and preparing full-moon offerings is very popular with consumers. Especially workers, civil servants, businessmen and traders mostly order ready-made dishes from the store. Since the 10th of the 7th lunar month until now, the store has had orders for making chicken sticky rice and fruit trays every day, sometimes up to several dozen orders a day.”

In Vinh city, for many years now, the service of preparing and delivering offerings to homes has been quite popular. On the occasion of the Full Moon Festival, most food stores and restaurants have added this service. The demand for prepared offerings is quite high, so many reputable stores are fully booked right before the Full Moon Festival, only accepting orders until the morning of the 14th of the lunar calendar; many restaurants have to mobilize more staff to serve customers.

bna_chicken sticky rice1.jpg — The price of each offering tray ranges from 350,000 VND - 1 million VND. Photo: Thanh Phuc

Ms. Nguyen To Nhu, owner of a restaurant on Phan Dinh Phung Street (Vinh City) said: “By the 10th, we had to close the order and stop accepting any more orders. The peak is on the 12th, 13th, and 14th of the lunar calendar, with 20-30 trays of food each day, so in addition to the 3 regular employees, the restaurant had to mobilize 2 more seasonal workers. Most of the orders are for sticky rice and chicken, pre-made trays at affordable prices.”

According to the survey, the price of ready-made trays of food this year is quite stable, not increasing compared to previous years. In particular, the price of chicken sticky rice tray ranges from 350,000-500,000 VND/tray (depending on the weight), the price of 5-7 salty dishes ranges from 700,000 VND - 1 million VND/tray; the price of vegetarian trays is slightly higher than before, each tray ranges from 1 million - 1.2 million VND (depending on the number of dishes).

bna_flower offering.jpg — Prices of flowers offered on the occasion of the full moon are stable. Photo: Thanh Phuc

In addition, some restaurants also accept additional offerings including: thin porridge, white rice, soup, sticky rice, sweet soup, boiled sweet potatoes (or taro), popcorn, fruits, candies, betel and areca nuts, rice, salt... priced at 150,000 - 200,000 VND.

At the traditional market, the prices of items for the Full Moon festival such as sticky rice, rooster, banh chung, pork sausage, fruits, betel and areca nuts... are quite stable and the shopping atmosphere seems quieter than every year.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hung, a fruit seller at Hung Dung market (Vinh city) said: "Compared to last year, the prices of fruits have decreased slightly, about 5-10% compared to normal days; chrysanthemums and betel nuts on the full moon day are also abundant, not as scarce as in previous years."

bna_votive paper.jpg — The votive paper stalls are quite deserted. Photo: Thanh Phuc

Accordingly, a plate of betel and areca nuts costs 10,000-15,000 VND; large chrysanthemums and cup chrysanthemums cost 8,000-10,000 VND/flower; lilies cost 100,000 VND/10 branches. Purchasing power is also lower than every year, revenue is only slightly higher than usual by about 10-15%, not increasing dramatically like previous years.

Economic difficulties have somewhat affected the shopping for the Full Moon Festival. Instead of elaborate offerings with many dishes and things like before, many families only buy simple offerings, commonly sticky rice and chicken. Therefore, on the occasion of the Full Moon Festival in July, the best-selling items at the market are sticky rice and roosters. The prices of various types of sticky rice range from 25,000-32,000 VND/kg; the prices of roosters range from 90,000-140,000 VND/kg (an increase of 10,000-20,000 VND/kg compared to normal days). In particular, poultry slaughterhouses attract quite a lot of customers to rent chickens for offerings.

bna_making chicken.JPG — The chicken offering service is quite busy. Photo: Thanh Phuc

In general, the market for the Full Moon Festival this year is quite stable, with a rich and abundant supply of goods and reasonable prices, meeting consumer demand. Compared to previous years, the purchasing power during the Full Moon Festival has decreased sharply, and the shopping atmosphere is less exciting.

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