HCMC residents prepare for Halloween

On the evening of Oct. 28, both sides of Hai Thuong Lan Ong Street in Ho Chi Minh City's District 5, a popular destination packed with stores selling thousands of colorful decorations for different occasions, were crowded with customers shopping for Halloween decorations. Customers are mainly young people, parents with children.

Khai Minh said due to Covid-19, his shop has only reopened since early October. With Halloween falling on Sunday, he has served many customers coming over the past few days.

The price for decorations this year increased only slightly compared to last year.
Masks cost around VND40,000-50,000 ($1.77-2.21) each, witch hats about VND100,000 each and costumes from VND100,000-200,000 per set.
Other decorations, including masquerade glasses and pumpkin baskets, have prices ranging from a few tens of to several hundred thousand dong.

Bich Hang, a Binh Chanh District resident, said this year she spent about VND1.2 million buying Halloween decorations like electric pumpkin lights, masks, witch hats and princess dresses for her five-year-old daughter.
She said this year, although her daughter did not participate in the carnival at school like every year, the school still encouraged them to share their makeup pictures with classmates.

An accessory shop on Nguyen Trai Street, District 5, is busy with customers buying Halloween decorations and costumes. Staff said in addition to direct customers, they also received many online orders worth millions of dong.

"There are many parents buying costumes, costing over VND1 million, for their children. Favored items are costumes, demon masks, witch hats and horror toy models," said a store employee.

Yen, from District 7, said: "Usually every year, I buy costumes for my baby to participate in the festival at school, but this year, my child hasn't started in-person class yet due to the pandemic. I buy some decorations so my kid can enjoy Halloween."

According to shop owners selling Halloween goods, there were fewer imported decorations this year due to the pandemic. In addition, since bars and clubs remained shut, there are no customers buying decorations to go to parties like every year, hence decreased sales.
"We only import enough goods to sell to families. The price of items only increased slightly compared to last year, due to the pandemic situation that led to production and transportation delays," said Hoa, owner of a shop on Hai Thuong Lan Ong Street.