Kenny202

It would make sense but I doubt its true. Most of the slow deliveries I get from Lazada are due to the inefficiency of that 3 letter companies delivery service not the seller. I don't know if you have noticed lately but when you check tracking last few months the seller may have packed the item and there will be a message "your item will be picked up and dispatched within 2 or 3 days". In all fairness a lot of these items are low value and should the seller send, pack and deliver with a normal more expensive company it would probably make their items uneconomical. So they pool all their deliveries at a lower price through Lazada

It depends on the value. Usually under 200 baht providing you show photos of damage they will right off and refund to you. Have had this twice now. More expensive items Lazada will pick up or you return to Kerry / Flash. Kerry and Flash can print off a return sticker for you. I don't know if they return the goods to China or what they do but not your problem if the goods were poorly packed or damaged.

Free wifi seats? lol

What I meant about over 30. An older person with a degree 30-35+ finds it very difficult to get work in their chosen field anywhere in Thailand. Coming straight out of Uni recently different story

I think that was the point I was making. There is no half measures with coffee or food for that matter. You either sell a lot of low grade stuff cheap (labor intensive / long hours / hard work / low return) or go all out. That of course will depend on your proposed location. The example you gave is 100% spot on. Yes people will pay 100 baht for a shot of excellent coffee in Bangkok. In a provincial town or village no. They equally wont pay 40 baht for a <deleted> cup of coffee. I am sure its the only reason Amazon and the other horrible, expensive mall coffee chains do so well here, and their coffee is awful. Thai people think it is up market. Its not about the coffee its about the FB selfies. So for that I would say your choice is go big or go home. If the area she is considering selling not a modern, cosmopolitan demographic.....Go for on the stove Moka coffee or a Nespresso machine with a milk frother. Still decent coffee but not the huge outlay. Your focus then should be add on sales. Coffee alone, even if it is good wont be enough to pay the rent or attract customers. Again your decisions should be location / turnover based. if you are going to be selling snacks and cakes etc no good having stuff that needs to be thrown in the bin at the end of everyday if not sold. Frozen / microwavable or long shelf life is the go. Armed with all this knowledge I would be asking her what her plans or ideas are with some of these stuff. Does she know what the best milk to use is etc? See how much of her own research she has done and how committed to its success she will be. I saw a guy invest 300k in a coffee shop in a side street in a very remote, small village, to appease his Mrs of course. She was trying to sell coffee for 25 baht a cup which even that she couldn't acheive.....do the math on that return on investment lol. Was just such a bad idea on every level and the guy should have known better. It is ok to say no here. They never stop trying it on or asking but you also have the right to say no, particularly where she has no business experience or for that matter education, let alone any knowledge of cooking or producing a half decent coffee. Or more importantly no skin in the game and the only person who is going to lose is you. Ask any Thai woman what business she wants to do. Will usually be a coffee shop, online skin whitener, gift shop or noodle restaurant. then ask her how she is going to distribute the profits and repay the start up investment? I bet the answer is "not worry, I take care you" lol. Just pandering to childish whims. A wise man once said, going to a chain store coffee shop for coffee is like going to prison for sex. You know you are going to get it but its going to be rough ????

That's a Chinese tactic. They seem to exploit and pollute everything. Its the same when you go to a big market, or somewhere like MBK in Bkk. You start to notice all the stalls have the exact same stock at the exact same price apart from a few that are inflated, to give you the illusion you are getting a bargain. Then you realize they are all the same owner.

That the other annoying thing with them. They have so much of their own spam and pop ups within their own app it, screen jumping around all over the place in an effort to make you click on something you don't want makes things even more difficult to find. A bit like another app / website we are all using right now ???? I have found the search engine within Lazada also rubbish. What I often do now if I am looking for something particular is do a google search and often the thing I was looking for comes up in shopping / Lazada. No rhyme or reason. Same search keywords in English or Thai are in the description and exactly what you searched for within Lazada app or website but no results. Maybe google has a better translate algorithm?

Yep, usually it's desperation where they open a business. And I feel very sorry for many of them. Over 30 here, even with a degree very hard to find employment. Without a degree or college education....the only thing open to you is farm, construction or factory work. You can't even get a job at a small Tesco or 7 without further education. Most of the new owners put the last 20 or 30k they have into starting a business thinking or hoping they will be making money from day dot. With a simple business such as BBQ chicken, moo ping or soup and a bit of experience I guess you could....but they also don't do the math. Maybe they see the money in the till from the days takings and don't consider only 10-20% of that is profit. The rest will be needed to replace the stock they sold, rent, electricity, gas etc. Soon (weeks) they don't have the money to buy the stuff that's needed....menu items become unavailable or food isn't fresh. Sales understandably drop off and the end is inevitable. They end up having to shut up and return to work for someone else, losing what little savings they had and usually a debt with the loan sharks. Must be awful to be poor behind the 8 ball here.

yeah I hate that you can't search only in Thailand anymore. Been like that for a few months. The option did come back for a week or so last month and then disappeared again.

I don't know why you would worry about COD unless it was a high value purchase or you didn't trust the seller. Do you actually open your stuff and check before you pay for it? If you are just doing COD because you are afraid of a no show don't worry as Lazada very good with returns or refunds. I have literally ordered hundreds of things through Lazada over the years and never had a seller try and scam me or something stolen etc. Had a few wrong items or small issues. If low value I throw it in the bin and chalk it up to experience. If not I make a claim and return it. Very simple. Just annoys me having to go to that extra trouble when the seller is clearly in the wrong but its all pretty easy these days. I think returns after approval can even be picked up from your home by Flash express, Lazada pays. COD just adds more stress to the transaction. Finding the right money, needing to be home when the delivery is done. Not worth it for me

That would be LEX who are I believe owned by Lazada. Very slow process with them and as you say often claim no one home but that probably comes down to your driver. You are the only delivery in that particular area, he wants to get home early and takes the easy way out. They must be cheap and pick up from the sellers I think. Cheap delivery cost = below average service.

I have been here 8 years now and where I live up North, I see businesses going out of business everyday. Usually 3 months and done. They start off with very little capital, no plan or even cost analysis on what they sell....what their profit will be and if they can even break even let alone make money. What really amazes me though is as soon as one falls over seems to be someone eager to take their place and the process is repeated. Even during Covid seeing so many new businesses start up (just as many closing). I have come to the understanding that to have a successful business in Thailand, you would be far better off as a Landlord in a busy area or someone who rents equipment out to the new and inexperienced. You would need a masters in debt collection though or group of thugs to go and collect your money.

I think that's the go here, do something the Thais like but do it well. She probably wont make a million bucks but should be a good little consistent business. Even milk teas, or soup..... there is a shop on every corner but most of them awful made cheaply with few low quality ingredient. Even soup. If you do a product right with good ingredients it will sell. A lot will depend on your girls commitment too. She will be looking at least 6 months to 2 years before she works it all out and is making money. There is a woman has a shop across from my Mrs restaurant sells milk teas but she also does fresh fruit juice and juice smoothies in the blender...she asks a premium price too but its good so many people come. Mind you depends on the area to, for eg she is in the Uni area so it is a bit of a more progressive demographic and uni kids have money to spend

If I were you Id be looking for something on FB marketplace second hand. You are not the first farang husband here who's wife wanted a coffee shop and there is a ton of used stuff for sale. Usual scenario wife takes selfies for the first week as the new business owner then loses interest as Thais generally aren't willing to pay 40 baht plus for a coffee, and in reality to cover overheads, rent etc in a mall or busy area you will need to be selling for 60 baht plus and have a lot of add on product (Cakes, snacks etc). Coffee machines are one of those things. 2 categories, good and useless. Forget the machines that grind and make the coffee, they are toys. You need something with a brass boiler, quality components and it needs to heat for at least 30 minutes before use. 100 cups a day is fairly high turnover for Thailand...to be honest (respectfully) Id say she's dreaming. If it were me Id be going for something low tech but good construction. Find something suits your budget and check the reviews. A proper burr grinder is as important if not more important than the machine and will set you back at least 20000 baht. Again secondhand is ur friend. If you get a decent machine it will be robust and generally easy to repair. Make sure it is a known machine in Thailand for spares, service etc. Other thing you need to consider is how many head machine you are going to need. If she is thinking 50-100 cups an hour she will be getting several customers at once (they don't come one at a time in a timely manner) and making coffee one serve a time will make the process difficult and annoying to the customers. A single group head dispenser wont be enough. I would say two at the least and a new machine like this, even low tech is not going to be available for 35k. There is quite a lot to making decent coffee and it goes far and beyond a good machine and grinder. If you are investing in this you need to make sure she has some training. Grinder and grind control to suit your machine is imperative. Tamping...Good quality beans. Minimizing wastage. I would definitely be looking for an Italian quality built simple machine that was well reviewed. There is no such thing as a semi commercial set up. Coffee is either good or <deleted>, there is no in between unfortunately. Forget any domestic style machines (Breville etc). You may as well use Nescafe. They look nice but that's as far as it goes. Really mate I have NEVER seen a coffee shop here doing those sorts of numbers, not unless she was in a busy mall with great coffee. Apart from some decent shops in Bangkok I would say I have never had a decent cup of store coffee here that was better than a 14 baht 7/11 3 in one. Usually bitter and awful. I would say have a real think about what her real usage is going to be. And forgive me if she has some experience at this and you do know for a fact the turnover is going to be as she says. If not, and she will only be doing a few random cups here and there you may be better off with a decent 6 cup Moka (Stovetop) pot, a decent grinder and a milk frother. Will be a much better result than a so so machine with a so so grinder which is only being used a few times a day. One other way to consider is a Nespresso machine with the little pods. It is an expensive way to make coffee for a shop (10-15 baht a pod) but will be easy for her and a guaranteed decent shot every time. Easy storage, no waste, electricity usage way lower and no need to grind. She will need to be selling for 65 baht or so a shot though.

Breville wont cut it

I use Lazada every other day and yeah since covid has been a free for all. Stuff sitting in "packed" status for a week or more. No replies from sellers. Late deliveries although I kind of accept that due to covid and increased demands for deliveries. A lot of mis advertised stuff too. Usually not even about the money more the waste of time waiting, particularly when after a week or two they tell you they don't have it. I suspect a lot of these local Bangkok sellers are actually delivering from China or Chinese sellers themselves. As far as I can see Lazada take no corrective action against these sorts of sellers. Not their promprem. I read yesterday whatever the Thai govt department for fraud is stated online sales complaints up 50%

Makro spuds are good and fresh these days, for mash and general eating....They do seem very sweet to my taste but still nice.....but for fries I find they just don't crisp up.

I think they are Dutch creams, really nice. I'm pretty sure that's what they used to sell in the small Tesco / Lotus shops. get about 3 or 4 in a mesh bag

Got the Rye flour and some Caraway seed today. Made my normal loaf which is normally a kilo bread flour (2 x big loaves) but instead used 700 grams flour and 300 grams Rye flour. 2 tablespoons of cocoa and the same of Caraway seeds and a couple of cups of whole meal flour. Normally use 3 1/4 cups water but added a bit more. Very pleased with the results. Nice and moist but dense. The way I made it certainly not a light loaf but very tasty.

I wouldn't either after reading how Jamie Oliver took them to court and just won the case. Meat "product" they use is so rank and unidentifiable initially as beef, they need to add all these horrible chemicals to it to make it edible....the chemicals them selves being highly toxic. Turned me off for life ????

You didn't read my op? Have used old and new oil and we got plenty of frozen fries in the freezer. Homemade cut potatoes are different...not necessarily better but different

No I don't find that at all. Maybe a long time ago. Pretty damn fresh these days. I actually find Tesco potatoes the best, when most of their other fresh vegetables I find are awful.

I remember when I first came here to live about 8 years ago the potatoes were mostly awful. Spongy rubbery things, like they were grade C, green and old imported cheaply from another country. Well happy to say these days potatoes are generally lovely and fresh, look like they may be grown locally now. One problem I do come across is they don't seem to fry well as chips. I have tried everything....doing them in the microwave a bit first.....par boiling and drying off 100%. They never seem to go crispy and brown very very quickly. I suspect this maybe due to the high sugar content they seem to have in the spuds here. Often they're unusually sweet, particularly Makro potatoes. Spuds from the markets don't seem to be near as bad. Just seem to cook differently here....never usually proper crispy and seem to really hang onto and absorb the oil. We use Soy oil mostly and not new oil. Tried cooking lower / higher temperature oil. We always have packet pre cooked french fries at home as my wife has a restaurant, and they're pretty damn good these days but still like a fresh cooked home made chip now and then. Anyone have any ideas?

We got 2 really good bakery shops here but no rye. They would probably order it for me, but 100 baht per kg off Lazada sounds ok. I got my standard white loaf recipe Ive perfected. From what Ive read normal ration 70/30 white / rye flour. Do you find you need a bit more or less water than a standard white flour loaf? Do you use caroway seeds?

I think they darken it with cocoa or other additives. I ordered 2kg of the cheaper one. Has a lot of good reviews so can't be too bad ???? Thanks for the advice guys.