The markets that actually move product cheap are the ones tourists mostly walk past. Some are air-conditioned malls dressed up as markets, some are proper wholesale operations where locals shop, and one is a night market so far outside the tourist zone that most visitors have never heard of it.

I’ve bought from all seven of these at different points, sometimes for myself, sometimes hunting down a specific thing for a visiting friend who needed clothes for the heat they didn’t pack for.

This list ranks them by actual value, not by how famous they are. It’s a cluster piece under my things to do in Ho Chi Minh City guide. If you want the broader shopping and market scene (souvenirs, homeware, food markets), that’s covered separately.

Quick Answer: Saigon Square 1 and An Dong Market are the two best value spots for cheap clothes shopping in Ho Chi Minh City, both offering lower prices than the famous Ben Thanh Market with less aggressive bargaining required. For genuinely local prices, Hanh Thong Tay night market and Tan Binh Market beat every District 1 option, but expect little English spoken.
The Ranking:
- #1 Saigon Square 1: best all-around value, air-conditioned, moderate bargaining, District 1.
- #2 An Dong Market: wholesale prices, huge selection, District 5, less touristy.
- #3 Tan Binh Market: genuinely cheap, real wholesale, minimal English.
- #4 Hanh Thong Tay Night Market: cheapest per item, student crowd, far from center.
- #5 Russian Market: good for bigger sizes and quality checks, moved location in late 2025.
- #6 Ba Chieu Market: authentic local prices, easy bargaining wins.
- #7 Ben Thanh Market: famous, central, but the most overpriced on this list.
Bargaining Basics:
- Fixed-price stalls exist (marked, no haggling). Everything else, start at 40-60% of the first quote.
- Air-conditioned markets (Saigon Square, An Dong upper floors) bargain less than open-air ones.
- Cash only almost everywhere. Bring small notes.
What to Actually Buy Where:
- Basics (t-shirts, shorts, casual dresses): Saigon Square, An Dong, Tan Binh.
- Bigger Western sizes: Russian Market.
- Genuine wholesale/bulk: An Dong, Tan Binh.
- Youth streetwear: Hanh Thong Tay.
- Fabric for tailoring: Tan Dinh Market (mentioned briefly, not ranked here).
What to Watch For:
- Quality varies stall to stall even within the same market. Check stitching before buying.
- “Original” and “genuine” claims on branded items are rarely true. Buy on price and quality, not the label story.
- No returns policy is standard. Try things on if a fitting area exists.

Short Videos

#1: Saigon Square 1

Best for: overall value, comfort, casual browsing
Address: near 77-89 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia, District 1 (walking distance from Ben Thanh)
Hours: roughly 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM

Saigon Square is what people mean when they say Saigon has better clothes shopping than its reputation suggests. It’s an indoor, air-conditioned mall-style market packed with independent stalls, three levels, mostly clothing, shoes, bags, and accessories.

A note before you go: there used to be a Saigon Square 1 and Saigon Square 2. Saigon Square 2 has closed. Make sure whatever address you’re following points to Saigon Square 1, which is the one still operating, just across from Ben Thanh Market.

Prices here run noticeably lower than Ben Thanh for comparable items, and the vendors are less aggressive about it. Some stalls have fixed prices you can barely move on, others expect a negotiation.

A decent polo shirt runs around 100,000-150,000 VND ($4-6). Sportswear and athleisure copies are a genuine strength of this market, some good enough that you’d struggle to tell them from the real thing without close inspection.

Bargaining tip: Start at 50-60% of the first quoted price. If a stall has a printed price tag, there’s usually still 10-20% room, just ask.

The one drawback is that Saigon Square gets busy on weekends, and stall holders can get frustrated if you bargain hard on a low-value item and then walk away. Keep it good-natured and you’ll be fine.

#2: An Dong Market

Best for: wholesale prices, bulk buying, serious selection
Address: 34-36 An Duong Vuong Street, Ward 9, District 5
Hours: 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM (some food stalls run later)

An Dong is where the wholesale clothing trade in Saigon actually happens, and it’s been running since 1951. If Saigon Square feels like a market dressed up for tourists, An Dong feels like the real supply chain.

Over 2,500 stalls, spread across multiple floors, selling everything from fabric to finished garments to accessories, sourced from Vietnam, Thailand, China, and Japan.

Because it’s a genuine wholesale hub, you can often land better prices here than anywhere else on this list, especially if you’re buying more than one of something. Solo shoppers can still get good deals, you just won’t get the steepest wholesale rate reserved for bulk buyers.

The building itself is worth a look regardless of whether you buy anything. It went through a major 1991 renovation funded by the local Hoa (Chinese-Vietnamese) community, giving it a distinct Chinese and Hong Kong-influenced commercial look that’s different from any other market in the city.

Bargaining tip: Quality inspection matters more here than at Saigon Square. Check stitching, fabric weight, and finishing before committing, especially if buying multiples. Vendors expect this and won’t be offended.

The food stalls scattered through and around An Dong are also genuinely excellent if you want to combine shopping with lunch. It’s next to Cho Lon (Chinatown), so pairing this market with a visit to Thien Hau Temple makes for a solid half-day.

#3: Tan Binh Market

Best for: genuine local prices, wholesale shoes and clothes
Address: 172 Ly Thuong Kiet Street, Tan Binh District
Hours: roughly 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM

This is the market I send people to when they say they want “the cheapest possible” option and don’t mind putting in a bit of effort. Tan Binh is a proper local wholesale market, not tourist-adjacent in any way, and the prices reflect that.

Shoes are a particular strength here. Wide selection of wholesale footwear at prices you won’t find in District 1, typically 80,000-250,000 VND ($3-10) for casual and formal styles. Clothing follows the same pattern. Basics, workwear, casual pieces, priced for locals buying in volume.

The trade-off is English. Expect very little of it. Bring a translation app, be patient, and lean on pointing and numbers. If you’re not comfortable navigating a market with almost zero English support, this one’s more of a stretch than Saigon Square or An Dong.

Bargaining tip: Compare prices across a few stalls before committing to anything. Start your counter-offer 30,000-60,000 VND below the first quote, then work up gradually. Going with someone who’s shopped here before helps a lot if you can arrange it.

If you’re buying in bulk (for a small business, a gift haul, whatever the reason), Tan Binh alongside An Dong is where you’ll get genuinely better rates than anywhere marketed toward tourists.

#4: Hanh Thong Tay Night Market

Best for: the cheapest individual items, youth fashion, an actual local experience
Address: 10/2 Quang Trung Street, Go Vap District
Hours: open 24/7, but the real action is 6:00 PM to 11:00 PM, then a quieter overnight shift until 7:00 AM

Hanh Thong Tay Night Market 2 Vietadvisor

Hanh Thong Tay Night Market scaled Vietadvisor

This is the one most tourist guides skip entirely, and it’s genuinely worth the trip if you want both a bargain and something to actually experience.

Hanh Thong Tay is known locally as “the students’ market.” It sits in Go Vap, about 20-30 minutes from District 1 by Grab, and once the sun goes down it turns into one of the liveliest budget shopping scenes in the city. Over 400 stalls at night, selling jeans, dresses, t-shirts, hair accessories, cosmetics, and phone gear, priced for a student budget.

Because it’s built around local (not tourist) spending power, prices here are lower than anywhere in District 1. The trade-off is the same as Tan Binh: minimal English, and a market layout that’s genuinely a maze if it’s your first visit.

Grab tip: Book your ride there and back through the app rather than hailing on the street. Go Vap isn’t dangerous, but it’s far enough from the center that walking back to a taxi stand at 10 PM isn’t ideal.

Bargaining tip: Locals generally get to about 70% of the first offer here. As a foreigner you might start slightly higher, but the gap isn’t huge, this market isn’t set up to fleece tourists the way some central spots are.

Come hungry too. The food stalls around Hanh Thong Tay (grilled rice paper, beef offal, fresh coconut water) are part of why locals treat this as a proper night out, not just a shopping trip.

#5: Russian Market (Cho Nga)

Best for: bigger Western sizes, quality checks on branded copies
Address: Floor 125, Hai Ba Trung Street, Ben Nghe Ward, District 1 (moved here in October 2025)
Hours: roughly 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM

Heads up on something that trips up a lot of returning visitors: Russian Market changed locations in October 2025. If you’re working from an older guide or a saved pin, it’s wrong. The current address is on Hai Ba Trung Street, District 1.

Russian Market earned its nickname decades ago when Soviet expats and sailors were among its biggest customers, and the name stuck even though the clientele has changed completely.

It’s air-conditioned, quieter than Saigon Square, and one of the better spots in the city for finding Western sizing, useful if you’re tall, broad, or just bigger than the standard Vietnamese cut most markets stock for.

Prices sit roughly on par with Saigon Square, sometimes a touch cheaper depending on the item, though it varies stall to stall. The upside is a calmer shopping experience since there’s less foot traffic. The downside is that with fewer customers, some vendors will quietly trail you as you browse, which some people find more pressuring than the loud haggling scene elsewhere.

Bargaining tip: Because it’s newer at this location (many stalls only opened in late 2025), some vendors are still figuring out their pricing. Worth comparing 2-3 stalls selling similar items before settling, more so here than at the more established markets.

#6: Ba Chieu Market

Best for: authentic local prices, secondhand finds, an unfiltered experience
Address: 40 Dien Hong Street, Binh Thanh District
Hours: 5:00 AM to 7:00 PM, night market portion from 6:00 PM

Ba Chieu doesn’t show up on many tourist-facing lists, and that’s exactly why it’s on this one. It’s a genuine neighborhood market in Binh Thanh District, a fresh market outside selling produce, seafood, and flowers, with a “dry market” section inside for clothes, shoes, and household goods.

What makes it worth the trip for clothes specifically is the secondhand section. Quality varies (you have to actually look, some pieces are worn out, some are genuinely great), but prices are consistently the lowest on this list for anything secondhand. New clothing here is also cheap, generally the least touristy pricing you’ll find inside District 1’s general orbit.

After 5 PM, street food stalls take over the surrounding area, and it becomes a proper local evening scene rather than a shopping-only stop.

Bargaining tip: Prices here are already close to local rates, so the room to negotiate is smaller than at Ben Thanh or Saigon Square. Don’t expect to talk anyone down 50%. 10-20% off is more realistic, and even that’s a bonus, not a given.

The language barrier here is real. Fewer vendors speak English compared to central markets. If that’s a dealbreaker for you, this is more of an “experience” stop than a shopping mission.

#7: Ben Thanh Market

Best for: the experience, souvenirs, convenience if you’re already there
Address: Le Loi Street, District 1
Hours: 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM (surrounding night market from around 5:00 PM)

Ben Thanh earns the last spot on this list because it’s genuinely the most expensive of the seven for clothing, and it’s the one where you’re most likely to get overcharged if you don’t bargain hard.

That’s not a knock on visiting Ben Thanh. It’s a real Saigon landmark, one of the oldest surviving structures in the city, and worth walking through once for what it is: a symbol, a photo opportunity, a place with real energy and genuinely good street food inside.

It’s just not where I’d send anyone specifically hunting for a bargain on clothes.

If you do shop here, know that first-quoted prices for clothing are commonly inflated 3-5x over what locals would actually pay.

The going wisdom among people who shop here regularly: if you paid half the first asking price, you’ve probably still paid too much.

Bargaining tip: Start your counter-offer at around a third of the first price. Expect pushback and be ready to walk away, sometimes literally, stallholders will call you back with a better number once they see you’re serious about leaving.

For clothes specifically, everything sold at Ben Thanh is also available cheaper at Saigon Square, a two-minute walk away. The only reason to buy clothing here over there is convenience or timing, not price.

Getting To These Markets Without the Hassle

Four of these seven markets sit outside the central tourist zone (Tan Binh, Hanh Thong Tay, Ba Chieu, and technically An Dong is a Grab ride from District 1 too). If you’re navigating there on your own, a working data connection matters more than usual, since these areas aren’t as easy to find your way around as District 1.

Grab handles the ride itself easily enough, punch in the address and go. The trickier part is once you’re on foot inside the market, since GPS pins can be unreliable in dense indoor markets and Google Maps sometimes drops you at the wrong entrance of a multi-gate building like Ben Thanh or An Dong. Having data on you the whole time, rather than relying on market WiFi that may or may not exist, makes the whole trip smoother.

If your phone plan doesn’t already cover Vietnam, setting up an eSIM before you land saves you the hunt for a local SIM shop on day one. Airalo has Vietnam-specific plans that activate the moment you land, which matters more on a market-hopping day than it does sitting in a hotel.

If navigating multiple markets solo feels like more effort than it’s worth, there are also guided shopping and local market tours that bundle a few stops together with a guide who knows the bargaining norms. Worth checking GetYourGuide or Klook if that sounds more your speed, particularly for first-time visitors who want the Cho Lon markets (An Dong, Binh Tay) covered alongside the nearby Thien Hau Temple in one outing.

What to Actually Buy at Each Market

A quick cheat sheet, since not every market is good for every category of clothing.

Basic everyday wear (t-shirts, shorts, casual dresses)

Saigon Square, An Dong, and Tan Binh all do this well. Saigon Square edges it out for style variety, Tan Binh wins on raw price if you don’t mind the language gap.

Sportswear and athleisure copies

Saigon Square is the strongest of the seven for this specifically. Quality on the better copies is genuinely close to the real thing, though you’ll need to hunt through a fair amount of lower-quality stock to find it.

Bigger Western sizing

Russian Market is the one purpose-built for this. Vietnamese sizing runs small across the board, and most markets stock accordingly. If you’re tall or broad, don’t waste time elsewhere first.

Bulk or wholesale buying

An Dong and Tan Binh are both real wholesale operations, not tourist-facing markets pretending to be wholesale. If you’re buying more than 3-4 of the same item, ask directly about a bulk rate, it’s a normal question at both.

Youth and streetwear

Hanh Thong Tay owns this category. The stock here skews younger and trendier than anywhere else on the list, since the customer base actually is younger.

Secondhand pieces

Ba Chieu is the only market on this list with a real secondhand section worth digging through. Patience required, quality varies stall to stall, but the prices reward the effort.

Fabric for custom tailoring

None of the seven markets above specialize in this, worth knowing if that’s your goal. Tan Dinh Market in District 1 is the dedicated fabric market for anyone planning to get something made rather than bought off the rack, and Soai Kinh Lam Fabric Market in Cho Lon is the specialist spot for silk and ao dai material specifically.

Quick Comparison

Market	District	Best For	English Spoken	Bargain Room
Saigon Square 1	District 1	Overall value	Good	Moderate
An Dong Market	District 5	Wholesale, bulk	Fair	Moderate
Tan Binh Market	Tan Binh	True local prices	Minimal	High
Hanh Thong Tay	Go Vap	Cheapest per item	Minimal	Moderate
Russian Market	District 1	Western sizes	Good	Moderate-High
Ba Chieu Market	Binh Thanh	Secondhand, local	Minimal	Low
Ben Thanh Market	District 1	Experience, not price	Good	High (needed)

General Bargaining Rules That Apply Everywhere

A few things that hold true across every market on this list, worth knowing before you go anywhere.

Fixed-price stalls do exist, usually marked clearly. Don’t try to haggle those, it just wastes everyone’s time.
Where haggling is expected, start low. 40-60% of the first quote is the standard starting point across most of these markets, with Ben Thanh needing the most aggressive opening counter.
Cash is king. Very few stalls at any of these markets take cards, and none reliably. Bring small notes, breaking a 500,000 VND bill for a 100,000 purchase is a hassle for both of you.
Check quality before you commit. Stitching, seams, zippers. “No returns” is the standard policy, so try things on if there’s a fitting area, and inspect closely if there isn’t.
Don’t take “original” or “genuine” claims literally on branded items. Buy based on how the item actually looks and feels, not the story attached to it.
Evening tends to bring better energy and sometimes better deals, especially at open-air markets, since vendors are often more willing to move stock before closing.

If you want a broader shopping guide covering souvenirs, homeware, and food markets rather than just clothes, that’s covered in my Ho Chi Minh City things to do. For where to visit the parts of the city, check the Ho Chi Minh City attractions guide.

One last thought on all of this. The instinct most first-time visitors have is to hit Ben Thanh, buy something overpriced because it’s the first market they see, and call it done. Give yourself one extra afternoon and work through two or three of the others on this list instead. The price difference alone usually covers a nice dinner, and you’ll walk away with better stuff.

Any market I missed that you rate? Drop it in the comments, I’m always adding to this list as places change or new ones pop up.

From the field

7 cheap markets in Ho Chi Minh City to buy cheap clothes

#1: Saigon Square 1

#2: An Dong Market

#3: Tan Binh Market

#4: Hanh Thong Tay Night Market

#5: Russian Market (Cho Nga)

#6: Ba Chieu Market

#7: Ben Thanh Market

Getting To These Markets Without the Hassle

What to Actually Buy at Each Market

Youth and streetwear

Quick Comparison

General Bargaining Rules That Apply Everywhere

Thank you so much! 🥰

Keep Exploring Ho Chi Minh City

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

#1: Saigon Square 1

#2: An Dong Market

#3: Tan Binh Market

#4: Hanh Thong Tay Night Market

#5: Russian Market (Cho Nga)

#6: Ba Chieu Market

#7: Ben Thanh Market

Getting To These Markets Without the Hassle

What to Actually Buy at Each Market

Youth and streetwear

Quick Comparison

General Bargaining Rules That Apply Everywhere

Thank you so much! 🥰

Keep Exploring Ho Chi Minh City

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Discussion

Guest Post

Your Post's Journey

Report Content

Choose your preferred language for localized experiences: