Moon cakes are unsold, why are they still sold?

As the Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, many retail outlets are sitting on hot coals, continuing to increase deep promotions for moon cakes. Meanwhile, many companies confirm that gift cakes and boxed cakes are doing better this year.

On October 2, many moon cake retail outlets in Ho Chi Minh City increased promotions to "buy 1 get 3, 4" to attract customers - Photo: N.TRI

Many retailers said they had expected the market to be slow so they reduced their imports, but did not think it would be this slow.

It's getting more and more unsold, why do you sell it every year?

On the afternoon of October 2, while preparing to change the price list from "buy 1 get 3" to "buy 1 get 4" for Dong Khanh cakes under the Bong Lua Vang brand, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Vu, representative of a mooncake store on Pham Van Dong Street (old Thu Duc City), said that he still had more than 400 cakes left so he had to deeply discount to attract customers.

At a stall next door, with a large quantity of Dong Khanh cakes still in the glass case, the seller said that they were applying a "buy 1 get 3 free" promotion, but if customers buy in large quantities, they will get "4 free", or even "5 free" if they buy over 100. However, after researching, the selling price here is higher than other places, even though it is the same Dong Khanh brand Bong Lua Vang.

"The selling price is different in each place so we cannot compare, it mainly depends on the policy of each point of sale. But the discount here is real, we have to reduce the price to sell the remaining inventory. The last batch of cakes imported has an expiry date until mid-November, but if it is past the Mid-Autumn Festival, it will be very difficult to sell and will easily lead to a loss," he affirmed.

Explaining why moon cakes have been unsold in recent years but he still sells them, Mr. Vu said he has reduced the amount of imported cakes by 20-25% compared to previous years, and the Dong Khanh brand of cakes alone has decreased by 30-35%.

"People's purchasing power for retail cakes is quite slow compared to previous years, and it's getting slower and slower. Although this was in the calculation, I didn't think it would be this slow," said Mr. Vu.

Meanwhile, Ms. Do Bich Lien, a retailer on Quang Trung Street (old Go Vap District), said she still tries to sell moon cakes because the import price of some types of cakes is only half the retail price for consumers, or the seller gets a fairly high discount, maybe 30 - 40%, the rest get a discount of 15 - 30% depending on the quantity taken and each company's policy.

"The discount is high, if sold successfully it means a big profit, so many retailers are still confident in importing to sell even though they expected purchasing power to decrease this year," Ms. Lien explained.

Retail cakes are down but gift cakes are still okay?

Speaking to Tuoi Tre, a business representative said that street-side retail cakes are mainly bought by people to eat, but this year these customers have tightened their spending, instead of buying 4, they now buy 2, using their money to buy more practical products. In addition, consumers have many choices such as buying on e-commerce channels.

With the wholesale channel, low-quality cakes and floating goods are difficult this year because the State strictly checks the origin, which helps cakes of companies and branded cakes gain more market share. Mr. Phan Van Thien, Deputy General Director of Bibica Joint Stock Company, confirmed that the retail cakes sold in the market this year are facing difficulties. However, the gift cakes and boxed cakes are still sold well by many units this year, growing compared to last year.

"The unit proactively promotes the customer channel of agencies and businesses, introducing new products that suit the tastes of people on diets, people with diabetes, and cakes with less sugar and fat. This year, the unit sold about 500 tons of all kinds, an increase of 10% compared to the same period last year, and some products were even not enough to supply," Mr. Thien affirmed.

Meanwhile, a representative of the Southern Friendship Food Joint Stock Company said that the boxed mooncake segment with high prices (mainly for gifts) this year accounts for about 40% of the total revenue of the unit and has grown very strongly compared to last year. Retail sales (mainly for agents) have increased but at a more modest rate.

"Wholesale customers who buy gifts often buy early, while retail customers buy later. Although many areas do not apply deep promotions, retail customers in the last week can account for 40-50% of sales for the whole season, so the retail channel still has hope to increase sales," the representative of the above branch assessed.

Many units believe that in addition to the factor of people reducing purchases, the purchasing power of moon cakes this year is also reduced due to the impact of heavy rain and storms in the Central and Northern regions right at the peak of the Mid-Autumn Festival season.

Can mooncakes be discounted?

A representative of a unit said that the general trend is that the price of moon cakes increases every year, maybe from 4 - 8% depending on the brand, this also causes difficulties for consumers.

However, reducing prices is not easy because the price level of cakes has been established for a long time, not to mention that cakes used for gifts are often built with an image to have a high price, which inadvertently pushes up the price of moon cakes in general.

"Not to mention, moon cake production is seasonal. If it is not sold out, the inventory will be considered wasted, or even result in heavy losses. Manufacturers must balance the packaging and raw materials because the materials used to produce moon cakes cannot be used to make other cakes. Therefore, the price of moon cakes is much higher than the production cost, partly due to the high risk factor. However, if the sales are good and the products are sold out, the production unit will make a big profit."

NGUYEN TRI

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/banh-trung-thu-e-sao-van-ban-20251002234726789.htm