Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching, children's toys with diverse designs and eye-catching shapes are sold in all stores. This year's prices have not fluctuated much compared to previous years, however, the atmosphere of shopping for Mid-Autumn toys is quite gloomy, purchasing power has decreased.

For nearly a month now, all the stores specializing in selling toys for children in Ninh Binh province have been given a new look, filled with colorful Mid-Autumn toys. According to a survey, the stores have started importing new toy models since the beginning of July to serve the needs of customers during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

With the trend of constantly changing designs every year, this year traditional, handcrafted toys are popular. In particular, products made in Vietnam, using environmentally friendly materials, low prices, images with national cultural colors such as: masks, star lanterns, lanterns made of paper, animals made of bamboo, carp, cloth lion heads, some wooden toys... are gradually dominating.

Besides, the prices are not different from previous years, specifically: lanterns with or without lights range from 20,000 to 40,000 VND, masks from 30,000 VND, drums from 15,000 VND...

The market is diverse and abundant in the quantity of goods, but in contrast to the bustling atmosphere on the first day of sale, in recent days, traders have been worried because the demand for shopping and consuming toy products has clearly decreased.

Ms. Pham Thi Hang, owner of Mega Sun children's toy store in Tam Diep city, said: Compared to last year, the number of Mid-Autumn Festival toys sold at this time is quite slow, possibly due to the impact of natural disasters and floods in the past half month, so parents have limited their children from going out to play.

To stimulate demand for children's toys during the Mid-Autumn Festival, many stores have applied promotional programs when buying in large quantities, selling online to expand their customer base, supporting gift wrapping and home delivery...

Ms. Dinh Thi Tuyen, representative of MyKingdom toy store, Ninh Binh city branch, said: The store has more than 4,000 imported toy products from abroad, always ensuring clear labels and origins, giving customers the freedom to choose. In order to help customers access good, reputable products at competitive prices, this year, on the occasion of Mid-Autumn Festival, the store system launched many attractive promotional programs when buying toys with each product discounted up to 50%. In particular, with a bill from 799 thousand VND, customers will be able to buy some additional products at a 70% discount. The program is applied from September 1-30. However, after half a month of implementation, the number of customers is still not as vibrant as every year.

Mid-Autumn Festival toys have a unique feature that is "following the trend" of the season, each season has a new model with a design theme, shape, and color that is different from the previous year. Therefore, if not sold out this year, the remaining goods will be difficult to sell next year, not to mention damage because the material is difficult to preserve.

However, retailers are still hoping that business will be better and sales will boom on the 14th and 15th of the 8th lunar month, because this is considered the "golden" time to sell products for the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Sharing the same difficulties of small traders, Ms. Hoang My Hanh, owner of a toy store on Hai Thuong Lan Ong Street, Ninh Binh City, said: After the store was closed due to the storm, the number of customers decreased significantly. In the past few days, the store has started to have customers again, the items that customers prefer are popular, cheap items from 40,000 VND or less.

Currently, in the context that many provinces and cities in the Northern region are focusing on overcoming the consequences of storm No. 3 and floods, in which, localities in the province are also focusing on responding to floods, so the organization of Mid-Autumn Festival in the province is directed to be implemented safely and economically.

Therefore, on the consumer side, this year's Mid-Autumn Festival will also have certain changes in shopping and celebrating the holiday. While some people tighten their spending due to the difficult economic situation, others tend to choose instead of buying Mid-Autumn Festival toys, this year many people prioritize contributing and giving gifts to children in difficult circumstances, children affected by floods, contributing to a meaningful Mid-Autumn Festival, full of sharing.

Article and photos: Lan Anh