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Discover the best finds at Ho Chi Minh's Lotte Mart in 2026! From exotic Vietnamese coffee to popular local snacks, get the inside scoop on what to buy and savvy shopping tips for your trip.
I'm excited to share my Ho Chi Minh City shopping haul from Lotte Mart, a must-visit for travelers in Vietnam!
Normally, I'm not a big shopper when I travel. But on a previous trip, I picked up some coffee beans that were absolutely divine. So, this time, I made a special stop at Lotte Mart in Ho Chi Minh City specifically to stock up on more.
The last time I bought coffee, it was from a newly opened specialty coffee shop in Hanoi. While amazing, it was quite pricey. This trip, I aimed for something more budget-friendly, which led me to Lotte Mart in Ho Chi Minh. Honestly, I didn't go in with a grand 'Ho Chi Minh shopping list' in mind; I just wanted coffee and ended up grabbing a few snacks. I skipped the Vietnamese instant noodles and pho this time around!
📍 469 Đ.Nguyễn Hữu Thọ, Tân Hưng, Quận 7, Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam
469 Đ.Nguyễn Hữu Thọ, Tân Hưng, Quận 7, Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam
Location & Address: ▲
Operating Hours: 7:30 AM ~ 10:00 PM
Phone: +84 90 105 70 57
You won't find a Lotte Mart in District 1, but there are branches near the airport and in District 7. So, I headed to the one in District 7.
My main mission was coffee, so I went straight to the coffee aisle. And wow... the selection was absolutely massive!
How was I supposed to choose from all this? It was overwhelming!
My main Ho Chi Minh shopping targets for coffee were Luwak coffee, Weasel coffee, and Con Soc coffee. The Luwak and Weasel coffee I tried last time were incredibly delicious, truly breathtaking.
I ended up asking a staff member for help. What surprised me was that I'd always thought Luwak and Weasel coffee were distinct, but the staff insisted they were the same, just called differently depending on the region. Every single employee I asked said the same thing!
I had always understood it as:
Luwak coffee = Civet cat poop coffee
Weasel coffee = Weasel poop coffee
Con Soc coffee = Squirrel poop coffee
(After doing some more research, I found out Con Soc coffee is actually regular coffee with hazelnut flavoring, named 'Con Soc' but not actually 'poop coffee'!) It's amazing how much you can learn while shopping.
Anyway, since they kept saying Luwak and Weasel were the same, I just said, "Okay, I get it. Can you just give me some beans that say 'Luwak'?" And this is what they brought me.
But if you look closely, this one also says 'Weasel' on it, haha!
In the end, I bought this one and a few other types of Weasel coffee to try.
I picked up these snacks because they looked tasty, but honestly, they were just okay. Nothing to write home about, haha!
These coconut cookies, however, are quite famous and often included in Ho Chi Minh shopping lists, so I decided to try them. They were definitely better than the previous two snacks, but personally, I didn't think they were an absolute must-buy. (That was my initial thought, but when I brought them home for a family gathering, they were a huge hit and disappeared in a flash! So maybe they are a must-buy after all!).
And then there were the Vietnamese instant noodles and pho... the variety was absolutely mind-boggling! I mean, how can there be so many different kinds? Haha!
I decided not to buy any, thinking it wasn't really worth taking them home to eat (plus, my suitcase was already over the weight limit!).
The total cost of my Ho Chi Minh Lotte Mart shopping trip came out to 970,000 VND. That's roughly ~$35 USD. It wasn't as much as I expected!
Or was it? Considering I skipped the noodles and pho, it was just coffee and snacks.
These are the coffees I bought. The one on the far left was my choice, but a friend ended up buying it for me as a gift!
I chose that particular coffee because when I asked a Lotte Mart staff member for recommendations, they told me that a Korean traveler had recently shown them a picture of those beans and bought 15 bags! That would be over ~$690 USD worth!
I'm excited to try it once I'm back home and share my thoughts in a future post!
After all that shopping... I was absolutely exhausted!
It seems like this kind of dedicated, planned shopping isn't really my style. I love casually browsing and buying things online, but spending a long time shopping in person just wears me out.
One thing I definitely learned this trip is that if you're going to shop, do it earlier in your trip, not on the last day! That way, you can try any interesting snacks or items you buy and go back for more if you like them.
It's often disappointing to buy a bunch of things that look good, only to get home and find out they're not that great.
Plus, back then, there were also travel requirements like rapid antigen tests on the last day (thankfully, those are long gone now!). Doing shopping on top of that just meant way too many tasks piled up.
And if you check out of your accommodation and leave your luggage there while you're out and about, shopping midway through the day can get awkward. You either have to go back to your hotel to drop off your new purchases (which means an extra trip!) or carry everything around with you.
So, my conclusion for today is: do your shopping early in the trip, not on the last day! You'll thank yourself later, trust me. Haha!
Lotte Mart District 7 in Ho Chi Minh City is located at 469 Đ.Nguyễn Hữu Thọ, Tân Hưng, Quận 7, Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh. Its business hours are from 7:30 AM to 10:00 PM.
The article author primarily purchased Luwak coffee, Weasel coffee, and Con Soc coffee. Lotte Mart staff explained that Luwak coffee and Weasel coffee are the same type, just called differently in various countries.
Excluding Vietnamese instant noodles and pho, the total amount spent on coffee and snacks was 970,000 VND, which was approximately ~$35. The author mentioned that this amount was less than they had expected.
A Lotte Mart staff member recommended a specific type of coffee bean, mentioning that a Korean customer had recently purchased 15 bags. The total amount for these beans was over ~$690, and the author also bought them.
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