Customers shop for calendars on Phan Dinh Phung Street in Ha Noi. Changing tastes and the unhurried psychology of customers have been blamed for very slow calendar sales in Ha Noi this year.

In streets where sales of the glossy, artistic articles are concentrated, particularly Dinh Le, Hang Ma and Trang Tien, business has been much slower this year, according to Pham Quy The, head of the Cultural Products Department of the Viet Nam Book Corporation.

Some put this down to changing tastes - to the fact that people may seek to give friends and relatives other present besides calendars for New Year.

Other people say slow sales are due to many people preferring to wait until the last day of the old year to buy a new calendar.

Bui Minh Lan, a shopper in Hang Bac Street, said this year she bought pictures as presents instead of calendars as in previous years.

In 2006, after the State removed the monopoly on printing and publishing calendars from the Ministry of Information and Communications’ Publishing Department, the calendar market was busy in December, a month or so before the Tet, the biggest festival in Viet Nam.

But Do Phuong Mai, owner of bookstore in Hang Trong street, said this year, her shop was selling only about 10 calendars a day compared to 20 to 30 last year.

The owner of a bookstore in Dinh Le Street said last year many customers were asking for calendars in October, “but this year our store is deserted”.

The Viet Nam Book Corporation publishes many calendars, including those for walls, desks and pockets, The said. In addition, many calendars integrate information on the phases of the moon, lucky days and famous sayings in Vietnamese, English and Chinese.

The calendars mainly focus on Vietnamese landscapes, art objects, flowers, beautiful women, and people in traditional costume.

Next year will be special because it marks the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long, the city that later became Ha Noi, so some calendar themes will reflect this, said The.

Advanced printing techniques have enabled the prices for calendars to be kept just a little above last year’s prices, even though the quality has been greatly improved, he added.

Dang Thu Hien, owner of a bookstore in To Hien Thanh Street, said despite the improvements for 2010, so far customers were indifferent. Small-sized block calendars cost VND10,000-45,000 (US$50 cents to $2) and large wall calendars cost from VND160,000-400,000 ($8-21), she added.

According to the Ministry of Information and Communications’ Publishing Department, publishers registered to print about 60 million copies this year, but in reality, only 15-16 million copies would be produced - and more if demand improved.

Huynh Ba Lan, director of HCM City National University Publishing House, said it planned to print only about 400,000 copies. Two years ago, the company printed about 1.7 million copies, but this was far too many.

But time will tell how sales will go. Nguyen Duc Linh, a window shopper in Thai Ha Street, said he would wait until the end of this month to buy a block calendar, because at that time the price fell by 35 to 60 per cent.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News