Why is Nguyen Thuong Hien food street deserted even on weekends?

Nguyen Thuong Hien food street is deserted, the restaurant owner sits and plays on the phone because there are no customers.

Opened in December 2022, Nguyen Thuong Hien food street is expected to be an attractive nighttime street food destination for tourists visiting Ho Chi Minh City. However, contrary to expectations, the food street is often deserted and desolate, with restaurants operating sluggishly.

Nguyen Thuong Hien Street is organized as a culinary street with a length of 368m (from Dien Bien Phu Street to Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street, Ward 4, District 3) operating from 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. every day.

According to the reporter's records, at 8pm on the weekend (Friday, April 21), Nguyen Thuong Hien food street was sparsely populated with diners. Vendors waited a long time for customers and most of them were shippers buying take-out.

Mr. Nguyen Huynh Anh Tuan (a merchant of Nguyen Thuong Hien food street) admitted that the restaurants here rarely have customers because the area is too small, there is no place to park while the parking lot at 1 Nguyen Thuong Hien is too far away, causing inconvenience.

Currently, there are about 92 food and beverage businesses on this street. Typical dishes that are easy to find on Nguyen Thuong Hien Street are mixed rice paper, mixed meat, milk tea; in addition, there are also filling dishes such as chicken rice, grilled chicken, vermicelli... However, the image of the shop owner sadly waiting for customers looks very pitiful.

Starting to open a frog porridge shop since the food street was launched, Ms. Do Thi Tuyet Hang (living in District 3) said that business was not as expected. "Not many customers come here to eat directly, most of them only order online through the application but the profit from that is not high because many fees are deducted. I hope the city will make appropriate adjustments to attract more customers to this Nguyen Thuong Hien food street."

The usual desolate scene at the shops in Nguyen Thuong Hien culinary area

Ms. Nguyen Hai Yen (a merchant on Nguyen Thuong Hien Street) lamented that her orders have now been severely reduced, with monthly revenue only reaching 60% of what it was before. If she calculates the cost of staff, rent and other expenses, she can only last until the end of this year.

Even though it is a food street, many stores "survive" thanks to online food ordering applications.

“I always buy take-out because the shops here are very narrow, the tables and chairs are placed on the street temporarily, so there is not enough space for a family of 5-6 people like mine. Besides, this road has a lot of traffic, which is quite dangerous, not to mention dusty and unsanitary. I think all vehicles should be banned from this area, but I'm afraid it will be difficult for the shippers,” said Mr. Tran Huu Huy (living in District 8).

An employee of a barbecue shop on the food street said that the number of customers eating directly at the restaurant on this street is not much, but fortunately, the number of customers ordering through online food ordering applications has maintained the operations of some shops.

Nguyen Thuong Hien Food Street is expected to become a tourist attraction in District 3 and Ho Chi Minh City at night. However, the number of international tourists coming to the food street is not much at present, sometimes only a few tourists visit individually.

The route has been marked with two blue lines as the boundary line, people can set up tables and chairs to serve customers sitting and eating inside the line (1.5m wide from the sidewalk) during the food street's hours. The area in the middle is for shippers, people driving 2-wheelers to buy take-away as well as people who need to move through this section of the road in the direction from Dien Bien Phu Street to Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street, but must limit speed.

This route is mostly small houses, located close together, with many businesses, so organizing a culinary city will help stabilize the activities and business life of the people and develop the local night economy.

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/vi-sao-pho-am-thuc-nguyen-thuong-hien-diu-hiu-ke-ca-cuoi-tuan-185230422104107099.htm