An Dong Plaza wears deserted look as shopkeepers go on strike

Vendors at An Dong Plaza in Ho Chi Minh City's District 5 hold up signs demanding a reduction in rents Thursday afternoon.

On Tuesday its management approved a 30-35% cut in rents for this year, but the shopkeepers did not accept this, saying they wanted a 55% cut. Rents were raised by 35% last week.

Vendors have shut down all 2,700 stalls.

Signs on the doors say An Dong Plaza has not made a satisfactory cut in rents and the decrease must be 55%.

The shopkeepers said they have made three formal requests to the management to waive rents this year and make a 30% cut from 2024 onward, and that the discount must be on the rate agreed in 2016 when the latest lease contracts were signed.

Shops are closed as their owners strike for a reduction in rents.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic began thousands of customers came to the mall every day to buy garments, footwear, cosmetics, and handicrafts. But only 100-300 turn up nowadays, and shops have seen a 60-80% drop in revenues.

A row of clothing stores that have been closed.

In fact, the poor business has caused at least 15% of stalls, like this one, to remain closed since the end of January.

A vendor who sells footwear says she used to sell wholesale clothes for almost 10 years and had two stalls at VND15 million a month, but switched to footwear after business plummeted, but for almost a year now sells fewer than 50 sandals and flip-flops a day.

“If the rent is not cut, it will be very difficult for my business to survive.”

A shopkeeper keeps his door half-open but only to check inventories.

At other stalls, vendors pack their goods to take home before shutting down.

“We used to have five employees but now only three are left since the shop owner had to cut costs,” one of the remaining staff, Tuyet Mai, says.

On Thursday a few shops selling jewelry remained open.

Tran Thi Thanh Thuy, director of the plaza, says rents were discounted this year due to Covid-19 and were waived last year, but some vendors still shut their stalls in protest.

Their demand will be considered, she adds.

Discords between shopkeepers and the management have occurred several times in the past.

In 2014 the mall raised rents by up to eight times the rate in the previous decade, which led to protests by vendors.

But the two sides managed to reach an agreement at that time.

An Dong Plaza is managed by property developer Van Thinh Phat. It has 22 floors but only five of them are leased to shops. Each shop is currently rented out at VND1.3 (US$55,280)-1.5 billion for five years.