Access to safe and healthy food is a crucial element of food security. In Vietnam the safety of daily vegetables
is of great concern to both consumers and policymakers. To mitigate food safety risks, the
Vietnamese government enforces rules and regulations and relies strongly on a single approach for organizing
food provision; being modernizing retail by replacing wet markets with supermarkets. In general,
reorganizing food provision in this way is increasingly considered to be a guarantee for food safety, especially
in urban settings with growing populations. To assess the effectiveness of this induced retail modernization
of the fresh vegetables market in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi, this paper examines for whom and
under which conditions does this approach deliver the desired outcomes. The survey data and interviews
show that ongoing retail modernization in Hanoi reaches only a minor segment of the population and
drives a large group of shoppers into informal vending structures. On the basis of five case studies, this
paper demonstrates how similar supermarket interventions can yield contrasting outcomes when they
do not accommodate for differences in shopper population and do not adapt to variations in the urban
conditions. To reduce exposure to unsafe food, particularly for poorer segments of the population, we
conclude that developing a flexible portfolio of retail modernization pathways and adopting a reflexive
policy approach provide better impact and leverage, as opposed to the current trend of promoting supermarkets
as a single, ideal-type form of food shopping.