Café Scene in Vietnam - Its international now

Café Scene in Vietnam - Its international now

Van is going to be able to give us some on the spot updates on the coffee scene in Vietnam from the beginning of next week so stay tuned and In the meantime things seem to be hotting up with major retailers such as Metrang, Trung Nguyen, and Phuc Long slugging it out with Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Starbucks and MCafe. Every one of them talking about expansion.

The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf got off to a bumpy start in their early days but now have 13 shops in HCMC and 2 in Hanoi with steady expansion predicted at 3 new stores next year.

Coffee culture is ingrained into the Vietnamese psyche and there is the belief that you just open the shop and the customers will come.

Some internationals however have got it wrong with Gloria Jeans just recently closing their last Vietnamese store.

Scarily Starbucks’ who arrived in 2013 now has 24 shops of which 18 are in HCMC and 6 in Hanoi. They are positioning them selves as a high end brand and taking advantage of the increasing disposable income and ‘foreign is good’ cachet. Drinks range from VND 85,000 to 100,000 per cup.

Another American new comer is PJ’s, they are trying their luck with similar price range as Starbucks and tapping into their New Orleans roots to get a point of difference.

McDonald’s have after starting 9 fast food shops launched their Mc Café system and joined the throng of food service providers like Tous Les Jours, Paris Baguettes and Dunkin Donuts pushing their drinks range alongside the food.

You don’t have to go far for a coffee in Vietnam with competing stores popping up very close to each other.