gharknes

the reason drugs are such a problem in Pattaya is because it is a big big money spinner, now who do you think is making all the money ???

Don't be fooled by the odd drugs bust here and there indicating that authorities are doing something about it................they are getting rid of rogue traders

i can rememeber before (probably not now) I could buy a case of San Miquel which worked out about 27 baht in those wholesale shops which are scattered everywhere..... so then a bar sells it for 45 baht.. thats an uplift of approx 60% which is pretty good considering how easy the product is to handle as it doesn't go off like, say, fruit and veg where you have to allow for waste...

Anyway I'm talking about "bars" that consist of 4 counters, a fridge and a couple of fans.... so if someone can't see the common sense of paying less for a beer in a bar in the same vincinity thats up to them....

"thats sums up about 85 % of Pattaya day time clientele.. even though I'm not a business guru, thats not a bad share of the market...especially if your bar consists of the open air tin roof variety..."

William, maybe I can educate you just a little on how owning a bar works. First off an open air tin roof in Pattaya is not cheap. In fact an enclosed bar in BKK costs less. Pattaya rents are really high. I looked at an open air tin roof place on Soi 7 last month. Let's assume I took it. There was one million Bht a year key money and the rent was 70,000 a month. Take the one million and devide it by 12 months, that comes to 83333 Bht add the 70,000 Bht per month and you get the true rent for a month 153,333 a month.

Now that 27Bht San Miguel you talk of actually costs 34 Bht delivered. Sell that beer for 45 Bht and there is a profit (not really, I'll explain) of 11 Bht That is 7.5% profit, not 60%

I'm sure that you like your beer cold, so I will have to buy ice every day to keep it cold. One bag won't do it. Lets say that I only spend 1,000 Bht a month on ice, because I really don't care how cold the beer is, after all I give you a condom for the bottle, and a cool cloth to wipe the sweat off you. Oops, another 1,000 Bht or a month

You will not go in if the lights are not on or fans running, so lets add 2,000 Bht a month for electricity.

Now we will assume a light bulb never burns out, a glass never brakes, no one ever knocks over a speaker, and chairs never break or get worn out, and coolers run forever. WE will make maintenance 0 Bht

My clientele only cares about price of beer, and not service, or ladies, so I skimp on those. I hire one casheer at 5,000 a manager at 10,000 and have two ladies serving during the day, and two more at night, the cheapest rate for a fat 35 year old woman with bad strech marks is 2,500 Bht each. (we are all the same here, and a bar with only two ladies working will attract us right in) we have a total staff costs of 25,000 Bht

We won't add in the cost of things I had to buy to open the bar. Like furniture, glasses, a sign, light fixtures, fans, sound system, after all, they are cheap, and I shouldn't need to recoup the cost anyway, after all, I'm the bar owner. That should be enough.

Let's add those costs up. Rent 153,333 Keeping beer cold 2,000 electricity 2,000 maintenance 0 staff 25,000 that equals 183,333 Bht I have to pay to serve you a half warm beer by an ugly lady. If we take that 183,333 and divide it by the 11 Bht "profit" I make on a beer and we get 16575, the number of beers I have to sell per month to break even. Divide that by 30 days in a month and we get 552 beers a day I have to sell to break even. Or 552 times 45 Bht per beer equals 24,863 Bht per day my bar has to make to break even.

Lets talk about you for a minute. You will come to my bar because of my cheap prices, and the fine lady company I have available. I'm going to guess you'll take up one of my seats for about two hours and buy three beers got a total profit to me of 33 Bht Now I only have to make 24,833 Bht more today, to break even. Wow. Break even means I don't make any money. That's OK though, I'm only in business to make you happy and comfortable. I don't have to do the things you do,, like have a place to live, eat, drink, take my lady out, or send her family money. It's OK if I can't go to a movie, or pay for a taxi, they are extravagances anyway.

Is there anything else I can do for you?

Maybe I should give you my girlfriend for 33 Bht for 2 hours also. dam_n, I'll be rolling in money then.

OK point taken. So if the cost of running a bar is unbearable and lucky if you break even, then on top of all that you have to put up with guys like Osborne and my self why are you even considering to rent a bar in Soi 7 you must be bonkers. Come- on even a chimpanzee with a half a brain can suss it out.

problem here is that the Thai owners are simply asking for too much money for rent and key money, there just aren't enough customers to go round, what you posted is informative but it also shows that the business model for a bar in pattaya ir seriously flawed and practically impossible, rents need to come down, but there's alway a mug who thinks they can make it, the sums just don't add up if they ever decided to actually work it out before signing a lease

a few here know what they're talking about and the others would go out of business very quickly or are probably in the process of, it's not just about drink prices it's location - being competative - offering something that reflects your prices - and ultimately if you have an empty bar you have got it all wrong.......simple

and i believe the same owners as they told me 2 months ago they where opening another STG, the old one was in "new plazza"

it's atctually a bike but Fi is Fi, the bike was left for a while dry and no fuel (my fault) the injectors need a good cleaning, I may bring them to the UK with me next trip if I cannot get them done here, ijectors for honda bike very very expensive

need a cleaning service for fuel injectors, fuel additives no good, they need to be done manually

anyone ?

I guess it's a really good well kitted out motor service center I'm looking for and maybe they will have what I need

I actually agree with the skeptics, inside job and not falang but thai, things are tight in patters right now money is tight which promotes crime, there is no way a falang would break into a room not knowing if the occupants where in there, 3 rooms all with people out hmmmmmmm no brainer for me

can anyone tell me the name of the resort just outside chantabury heading back to rayong, it has a fantastic beach and little holiday bungaloes also a few hotels, was there before but can't remember name.

Hi guys, does anyone know of a good motor repair shop that can clean Fuel injectors, I could do it myself but don't have the facilities, and fuel additives will not work, they need to be cleaned manually

any suggestions welcome

Anyone notice the current last six news items all involve Thais with guns

where is pattaya headed ???

a little advice, do not buy a Boss table they are <deleted>, you might want to nip into megabreak soi diana ask for John

this is an old trick ,i did it years ago ,sold beer and spirits for 30b to knock out competion ,once that was done put the price up slightly every couple of weeks ,gets you known quickly and crowds attract ,beats paying fortunes on advertising ,this worked for me and 14 years later im one of the most successful bars on koh samui ,known worldwide ,had tv programmes done on me and the bar ,take avantage of there prices as they wont last ,the funny thing is when they put there prices up people will still go there ...

Yes but 50baht a bottle is still cheap, I agree 100% with the OP and although I haven't gone ito business myself I have always avocated the low price high volume concept but it always fell on deaf ears, the are just too many greedy bar owners around Pattaya and Jomtien that fail to see the advantages, I'd rather sell 1000 cheap or resonably priced bottles of beer to many than selling 50 at rip off prices, BTW the biggest rip off is actually shorts at 25ml measures anywhere from 90-130baht ,now that is a grand rip off, 25ml of premium spirit costs around 23baht per shot (with mixer) - less than a bottle of beer, and if it isn't premium you can more than half that, most of the bar owners I know don't even know how to work out the figures, so when you are sitting in some of these rip of establisments and you order a spirit you are getting 25ml measure that's 40 measures from a ltr bottle costing approx 800baht or more than likely the cheap stuff at 300baht DO THE SUMS. I used to buy my own bottle the way the Thais do and pay the corkage 100-200baht and when I had finnished the bottle over a period of time I had saved myself some 2,500baht. I'm glad to see bars like this are opening up, it creates an element of competition and removes the price fixing that goes on around the place. It's quite funny as I have looked in some empty bars and looked at the owner sitting on his own then looked at the prices then walked out again, very easy to get into this cycle of less and less customers then putting the drink price up the compensate then suddenly no customers, me and a bunch of friends regularly drink in a bar that serves beer 35baht - walk 50meters and there is an empty bar trying to sell at 80baht, greedy no business sense collapse - jump

Been saying this for a long time on this forum

With you 100% on this one Jingthing. Haven't used these Taxi's from day 1 because all my Thai friends and my Thai husband have stated that no-one should go near these taxi's as they are mafia controlled.

Fortunately, for this fella, he and his son, got away with just abusive language. It could have got a lot worse and even if he had told the taxi driver to naff off because he wouldn't use the meter, I don't believe that was any justification for going to his car to get his tyre iron.

Also, noteworthy information that you can't get hold of the Police either when you really need them too.

metered taxis in pattaya would be a great idea, it would stop the extreme prices that baht bus and motorbike drivers charge for a 5 min journey that would cost less than 50baht in Bangkok, but it would need to be properly supported by city authorities and the police, vast improvement to transport if you ask me.

There are many threads about this shell station, no matter how much I complain they still try and stiff me every time. You just need to be observant and remind them each and every time to reset the pump.

or look at the pump when you pull up ask for that amount then when they have put that in ask for the rest, 70baht please then 500baht, that way they won't try and cheat you

I go out with thai friends (male) sometimes and they won't let me pay for anything, on the other hand I've had a few that tried to pull a fast one. I guess there is no generalisation, we are all human.

Perhaps not so big cost increases in Thailand but the falang supermarkets will take any opportunity to increase already well inflated prices, just another scam, there are few options for falang shopping for falang food, some items are actually more expensive in Thailand than in UK

The fact is that real estate agents are struggling sao they bump up the price to keep afloat.Not too disimilar to some bars and restaraunts,they hike the prices up because they have no customer,as the busy places have the same price strategy.

The problem is simple, westerners comparing prices from their home counties, Thailand is not their home country, everything should be a quarter of the price including property, if it isn't then you are being ripped off big time, and it is falangs that are doing the ripping off, but I don't blame them, if some idiot wants to pay inflated prices for stuff in thailand - well more the fool them.

If you compare Thailand with places like Turkey and the US, you will find cheaper compareable property - there has to be something up with that

CT's are dangerous, do a little research on radiation exposure, MRI is magnetic

just my 2 cents worth

This was from the RTC in Hull website, it seems to differ from the common belief here about where the bank money should be

and to be honest, if your pension can be paid into a UK bank why can't your cash be there also ???

any thoughts

here is the text copied direct from the website

...................................................

The current financial requirements are the equivalent to an income of 800,000 baht per annum or 65,000 baht per month. Applicants who do not receive an income / pension must be able to demonstrate that they have an amount equivalent to 800,000 baht in a bank account. Monies do not have to be paid into or held in a Thai bank.

.......................................................

Another thing to note, if I don't have 10baht change and have say 20 or 100 note, I show them it then ask for the change first, most of them understand this and provide with a smile, they know that they or some of their comrades will just take the money and drive on.

Also if you have unreasonable agro from them as posted previously, make a very obvious note of the bus number before things get worse, they will generally back off once they are aware you are aware.

Has the law changed or is just pattaya authorities putting their own spin on it, none smoking in open air bars is rediculous, you can smoke in open bars in the UK and Ireland, the original government release of this legislation was no smoking in aircon places only, I spoke to a few bar owners and they said open bars where not included in the ban and that the information spread out on various public forums including this one was incorrect.

can someone that actually knows clear this confusion up.

only in thailand

I find it interesting that nobody has replied to this post, there is obviously nobody here that actually knows, that makes all smoking threads on this forum utterly useless and meaningless.

I'LL ask again, can someone that 100% knows if the smoking ban of Thailand previously/officially announced by the government has been altered by the government to include all open air venues as well as enclosed aircon, or is this alteration only by pattaya local authoritie or is there no alteration at all and it's made up crap by some illinformed people just trying to stir it up and create confusion, I'd go for the latter as most of the open bar owners know nothing about it.

Has the law changed or is just pattaya authorities putting their own spin on it, none smoking in open air bars is rediculous, you can smoke in open bars in the UK and Ireland, the original government release of this legislation was no smoking in aircon places only, I spoke to a few bar owners and they said open bars where not included in the ban and that the information spread out on various public forums including this one was incorrect.

can someone that actually knows clear this confusion up.

only in thailand

I agree that some of the drivers are greedy etc. To say the least !

But ..........

I dread the day that Patty has the same taxi service as somewhere like Samui. We will all reminisce about the old days when you could get from Walking Street to Big C for 10 baht !

Got a feeling it will happen as Pattaya changes. More upmarket visitors and hotels/shopping means higher taxi rates. It happened in Chaweng.

I don't see upmarket just stupid people who come here and don't question what they are being asked for, that includes any form of taxi, drinks, food, accomodation and other services, the thais are learning that if they ask for it they will generally get it, and the falangs in business here are 10 times worse

<snip>

The robbery of the blue songtaews finally made me get a car, and I'm happy with that choice.

I really dislike the idea of having a car in Pattaya and dislike even more the idea of driving. But I'm trying to work out whether I can hire a driver for half a day per week to do big shoppings, anyone have experience with this?

I know several people who hire the same driver every week to do the big shopping. I think they are charged 200 baht per hour - maybe more now, my driver has just upped his fares because of price of gas.

BTW, in all my years here, have always got on well with the songtaew drivers.

you will always get on with any thai when you pay them 200baht for a 40baht trip if you used a bangkok taxi same distance.