Bustling market for new school year supplies

Consumers prefer Vietnamese goods

Representatives of supermarkets, bookstores, stationery stores, school uniform stores, and shoe stores said that most of the products used for studying are domestically produced with a variety of designs. Entering the summer vacation, many parents are shopping for their children's next school year. However, from the end of July to the beginning of August, the market really became bustling. Many stores had to increase staff and open longer than usual to serve customers. The prices of school supplies this year are similar to last year, with a few products increasing by about 500-1,000 VND/item. For exercise books and test papers, brands such as Campus, Hong Ha, Hai Tien, Thanh Dat... dominate, with prices ranging from 7,500-23,000 VND, depending on the brand and the number of pages. Writing utensils such as pens (ballpoint pens, erasers, pencils, ink, highlighters), rulers, scissors, wax ink, erasers, watercolor ink, pencil cases... are also made in Vietnam, accounting for over 80%, with an average price of 3,200-120,000 VND/item, depending on the type.

Thien Long's school supplies and stationery products at a bookstore in Ninh Kieu ward, Can Tho city.

According to many parents, domestically produced school supplies have diverse and beautiful designs, and affordable prices, so "Made in Vietnam" products are the preferred choice. Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh in Tan An ward said: "Previously, I had a "foreign-oriented" mentality, thinking that imported goods were good and I also prioritized foreign goods for school supplies. But a few times I bought and let my children use domestically produced products, I highly appreciated them. Domestic products now have a wide variety of designs, the quality is not inferior to imported products, the form is suitable for all ages of students, and the price is affordable, so now when choosing to buy school supplies for my children, I prioritize domestic products."

Proactively preparing for the 2025-2026 school year, Thien Long Group (a Vietnamese stationery brand) has proactively increased its production, supply and service capacity, and launched a complete ecosystem of school supplies, serving the diverse needs of students. Not only launching a few individual products, Thien Long introduces a comprehensive stationery ecosystem. Each product is deeply improved, from core materials such as ink, paper, to ergonomic design, aesthetics and user experience. The highlight is the new generation of ballpoint gel pens with Butter Gel technology that writes smoothly, dries quickly, and prevents smudging, especially useful for students who write a lot by hand or are left-handed. In addition, there are Flexio student calculators; backpacks, anti-hunchback bags; anti-glare, anti-smudge, high-yield notebooks, vivid cover designs and smart lines; super clean colored markers, 70-color brush sets...

Regarding school uniforms, according to the business locations, the products have the same price as last year. In Can Tho City, most schools have uniforms, so each school has different models. In addition to large uniform supply stores such as Ngoi Sao Xanh and May Tay Do, in supermarkets, markets, and fashion stores in the center of wards and communes, school uniforms are sold a lot. Depending on the model, brand and fabric quality, the price of uniforms ranges from about 180,000 to 350,000 VND/set, depending on the grade level. Domestic branded shoes and sandals such as Biti,s, Bita,s, Asia... are also chosen by many parents.

Many price stabilization and consumer stimulus programs

In order to attract customers to shop in preparation for the new school year, supermarkets and bookstores offer many attractive promotions.

In accordance with the market stabilization program launched by the Department of Industry and Trade of Ho Chi Minh City, serving the market for the 2025-2026 school year, Saigon Co.op registered to stabilize the group of 38,400 sets of school uniforms, 800,000 notebooks, with prices guaranteed to be at least 5% lower than the average price at the same time, with the same quality standards. Not stopping at the group of products registered in the stabilization list, the stabilized products for the back-to-school season of brands Hami, Mr. Vui, Vinh Tien... are also given a convenient business area by Co.opmart in the self-selection area.

In addition, Saigon Co.op also implements the program "Back to school deal - Love price" applying discounts from 30-50% on school products, such as notebooks, backpacks, school uniforms, shoes, plastic water bottles, LED lights, writing boxes, pens of all kinds, notebooks...

According to Saigon Co.op, most of the products are domestically produced, high quality, with stable prices. Specifically, multi-purpose bags, backpacks, school uniforms, women's underwear, shirts, trousers, mini handheld fans, student desks, plastic chairs, desk lamps, body pillows, pillows... are discounted by 20-30%; Matsu plastic water bottles, all kinds, pencil boxes/purses, sets of 4 rulers of all kinds, packs of 3 or 5 pencils/ballpoint pens, student boards, scissors, 8-color/12-color/18-color/24-color crayons... are discounted by 25-35%, with prices ranging from 59,900-349,000 VND/product. In addition, parents who are Saigon Co.op members at bronze/silver/gold/platinum levels have the opportunity to receive 5 times the bonus points when purchasing products with the "x5 points" icon with a bill of only 10,000 VND or more.

To welcome the 2025-2026 school year, GO! supermarket chains nationwide are launching a "Ready to go to school" promotion program, applying discounts of up to 50% on more than 1,000 school supplies of all kinds. This is GO!'s annual activity to support the new school year. A representative of GO! said that the new feature this year is the buy 2 pay 1 policy, applied to a variety of foods and essential items. For example, Magic square notebooks cost 75,000 VND/pack of 10, Capybara full set of school supplies costs 139,000 VND/set (original price 159,000 VND), girls' uniforms cost 69,000 VND/set (buy 2 get an additional 10% discount), and many school backpacks cost 199,000 VND/item (buy 2 get an additional 10% discount).

Fahasa, Hong An, and Phuong Nam Bookstores all have discount policies for customers through programs such as direct discounts, lucky draws, gifts, and many incentives from school supplies brands. LOTTE Mart Supermarket, MM Mega Market Hung Loi Center, Winmart... have also prepared goods with many incentive programs for customers shopping for the back-to-school season.

At this time, on online platforms, back-to-school goods are equally bustling. On e-commerce sites such as Tiktok shop, Shopee..., a variety of products are introduced. Vietnamese goods sold on these platforms dominate with more than 80%; especially, many promotional programs are applied.

Article and photos: KHANH NAM

Source: https://baocantho.com.vn/soi-dong-thi-truong-do-dung-cho-nam-hoc-moi-a189548.html