There are two more weeks till Freedom Day – the moment when we should be able to get our lives back to something like the way they were before.
Looking back across the last 16 months, I’m relieved to say my family has been lucky. No serious illness – touch wood.
Nothing much has fundamentally changed other than constant frustration, familiar to everyone, at being told we couldn’t see the people we wanted, when we wanted or visit places as and when we wished.
We had been working from home previously for several years. We didn’t decamp to the countryside.
E-commerce dominating as retail spaces struggle Chia sẻ | FaceBookTwitter Email Copy Link Copy link bài viết thành công
02/07/2021 09:26 GMT+7
Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City retail landlords continue to face declining rents due to social distancing and competition from e-commerce.
E-commerce dominating as retail spaces struggle. Source: freepik.com
Despite reducing rent by 20 per cent and then later to as much as 50 per cent, landlords in the central areas of these two cities are suffering as their tenants are giving back the rented spaces which remain unoccupied for months.
Nguyen Van Hien, owner of a fashion kiosk in Ho Chi Minh City, said that she has to pay VND40 million ($1,700) per month for rent, staff’s salary, and other expenses. However, during the last year, Hien’s revenue was only 30 per cent compared to before the pandemic.