The World Cup is a prosperous business opportunity for popular coffee shops and restaurants but it’s a nightmare for the entertainment business and luxury dining in Ho Chi Minh City.

Local coffee shops and restaurants continue to be the first choice for World Cup fans to watch matches

This Karaoke spot is usually busy at this time, but sits empty

Initially, expensive coffee shops and restaurants attracted an abundance of customers thanks to their advanced LCD TVs or big-screen projectors. However, football fans have swiftly changed their watching location to more affordable coffee shops and restaurants, which are situated on sidewalks.

Ho Van Tinh, living on Doc Lap Road, Tan Phu District, Ho Chi Minh City, and his friends often watched early matches at big coffee shops or in big restaurants. But after some time passed, they now gather at street stalls to watch the game.

“We were charged nearly half a million dong per night at fancy restaurants. We cannot afford that much money throughout the World Cup,” shared Tinh.

Currently, expensive coffee shops and restaurants have very few customers during football matches. Meanwhile, the street stalls and local coffee shops seem to be enjoying a plethora of customers.

Bay, owner of a popular restaurant on Co Bac Road, Phu Nhuan District, Ho Chi Minh City said, “My customers are increasing more and more. There is no space at my restaurant during matches despite the fact that we have an old-fashioned TV.”

“I serve over 200 coffee glasses per night, excluding other kinds of drinks. My profits have doubled,” said Hoang Thi Anh, owner of a small coffee shop on Nguyen Thai Son Road.

Most of her customers were students or motorbike taxi drivers during the first matches, but now, civil servants and businessman come to her boutique to watch World Cup matches.

“A cup of coffee cost me about VND20,000-30,000 ($1.05-1.57) at big coffee shops but I have to pay only VND6,000 ($0.3) for a glass at small ones. At expensive coffee shops there are big screens but here I can shout out for encouragement or relax myself by putting my legs on the chair,” shared Trieu, who works at a bank.

In contrast, the usually busy and more pricey spots often popular at night such as cinemas, karaokes, billiard halls or gaming stations have their fewest amount of customers yet this year. They receive very few customers during the day and during World Cup matches they have virtually no customers.

“The number of customers has reduced by half. We always have vacant rooms and we have free time to watch World Cup.” said Ngoc, an employee of at a large karaoke on Hoang Van Thu Road.”

Thinh, owner of a billiards hall on Le Duc Tho Road, Go Vap District, in Ho Chi Minh City complained, “There are basically no customers. Traditionally, I have a lot of customers during summers but they are all watching the World Cup. My tables are empty and my staff outnumbers my customers since the World Cup started. Business is very bad.”

Source:dantri