In the afternoon, after picking up her child from school, Ms. Nguyen Thi Binh, in Dong Ngac (Bac Tu Liem, Hanoi ), hurried down to the supermarket in the apartment complex to buy a mini gas stove and a few small gas cylinders to prevent power outages.

Ms. Binh confided that her apartment building is located in a low-lying area, so whenever it rains heavily, it floods. For the past two days, all the roads in the area have been flooded. Her house is on a high floor so she is not worried about flooding, but she cooks with an induction cooker. She has stored a little food, but without electricity, it is useless.

Fearing that the flood would rise high and inundate many places, causing power outages, she quickly bought a small gas stove to prepare for when needed.

“The house is crowded, storing dry food will only last for a couple of days. You still need a stove to cook rice and simple meals,” she said. However, this evening she went to three supermarkets in the apartment complex but still couldn’t buy anything, everywhere they said they were “out of stock” both mini gas stoves and alcohol stoves.

Finally, she drove to the street near her house to buy a mini gas stove for nearly 300,000 VND, and bought 2 sets of 8 mini gas cylinders for 350,000 VND to store. "In case of power outage, this stove can boil water and cook instant noodles...", Ms. Binh said.

mini gas stove
Mini gas stoves have become a hot item that many people are looking to buy these days. Screenshot

Ms. Tran Ngoc Ha, in Tan Mai (Hoang Mai, Hanoi), also just bought a mini gas stove for 480,000 VND to prepare for power outages. The express delivery fee from Cau Giay area to her house cost nearly 100,000 VND more.

“We use an induction cooker. Before, when there was a power outage, the whole family would go out to eat or order takeout for 1-2 meals. Now that we have a baby at weaning age, we had to buy a gas stove to keep in the house. Unfortunately, if there was a flood and a power outage, we still had a stove to cook porridge for the baby,” she said.

In apartment buildings in Hanoi, most households use induction cookers for cooking. Therefore, these days many people buy gas stoves and alcohol stoves to prevent power outages.

On online apartment markets, many people post information about buying mini gas stoves and alcohol stoves. These types of stoves are now as popular as vegetables, meat and fish.

Posts like "Is anyone selling a mini gas stove?" or "If anyone is selling an alcohol stove, let me know immediately, it's urgent" are all over social media.

small kitchen
Cheap alcohol stoves are widely sold on online markets. Photo: NVCC

Ms. Nguyen Thi Men - a saleswoman at a supermarket in Dai Kim (Hoang Mai, Hanoi), said that today hundreds of customers from the apartment building came down to ask to buy mini gas stoves and alcohol stoves.

However, this is not the main product of the supermarket so the stock is only a few dozen. These stoves were sold out early in the morning.

“The supermarket is no longer importing stoves, but only importing mini gas cylinders and gel alcohol to sell to residents,” she said. Accordingly, the supermarket is selling a set of 4 mini gas cylinders for 150,000 VND, and gel alcohol for 30,000 VND/bag of 5 boxes.

Ms. Dang Thi Van Trang, in Thanh Tri (Hanoi), said that all 80 mini gas stoves, each with 3 gas cylinders, have been ordered by apartment customers. Her husband is delivering the stoves to residents. Meanwhile, today she also sold nearly 40 alcohol stoves.

“This afternoon, I posted a sale and received more orders for mini gas stoves. But I had to cancel the order because the wholesale warehouse said this type was 'sold out',” she said. According to her, compared to alcohol stoves, mini gas stoves have a stronger flame, so many customers ordered them. This is also the reason why the warehouse reported that customers were competing to "buy" a large quantity of stoves to sell on this occasion.

Now she only accepts orders for alcohol stoves, but the quantity is no more than 100 stoves, because the wholesale warehouse reports that there is not much stock left, Ms. Trang shared.

There are many types of mini gas stoves on the market, with prices ranging from 230,000 to 450,000 VND/stove, and mini gas cylinders cost 30,000 to 50,000 VND/cylinder. Alcohol stoves are also sold by many sources for 70,000 to 100,000 VND/unit, while alcohol gel costs from 5,000 to 10,000 VND/box. Many stores have reported that these types of stoves are "out of stock" due to the sudden increase in customers.

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