now tweeting

 

Saturday 20 December 2008

Inside Lotte Mart, Saigon

It opened! 33,400 square meters of shopping in District 7 less than ten minutes from where I stay. Of course I had to visit but I couldn't shake off the feeling that it was wrong to be excited, still a little guilt seasons pleasure.

It's a supermarket and shopping complex over three floors with a cinema, bowling and food outlets. It sells just about anything you could want from motorbike tyres to flat screen TVs and I know I've been here for a while now because I got bloody excited about it and had an absolute ball.

Alas the pictures are limited because the staff kept catching me with my camera and telling me "No pictures". They were firm and even a plaintive "But I'm going to blog it" cut no ice.

Lotte Mart Saigon Interior

I'll be back but next time I'll be a little more furtive with my photography.

Windows of Lotte Mart Saigon

Also on site is a branch of the Lotte franchised coffee outlet Angel-in-us. True to the company that brought us Lotteria "We Love Hamburger" we get a little splash of bad English with our drinks.
World Best Coffee

2 comments:

thomas said...

I was there too and I was disappointed. The cinema might be ok, and the food court too as well as the Pizza Hut, but the super market? Exactly the same stuff like in CitiMart and Coop. Have you been in the meat section, where everyone is touching the meat? Or the baguettes? Have you seen the vegatables looking like 10 days old without cooling?
And they are proud that most products are from Vietnam.. I don't care so much where they are from, but if there is no fresh milk, no passion fruit juice and a small cheese selection, why people should go there instead of the coop at Nguyen Van Linh?

Anonymous said...

Novelty, great big orange shopping trolleys and marked out bike parking spaces do it for me but then, I'm easily pleased.