Tops supermarket at Ruam Chok mall

[EricTh]

Tops supermarket will be opening on 23 Nov 2018 at Ruam Chok mall.

 

For those living around the area, it will be another great choice.

 

 

[worgeordie]

Competition for RimPing, One thing I will be shopping

for is cooked ham,in RimPing the selection from the

local German,cannot think of the name of, producer

of sausages and cooked meats,has dwindled to half

a shelf of goods,very rarely are there any cooked Ham

or frankfurter sausages.

regards Worgeordie

[clokwise]

Just shopping in Rimping Ruamchok today and quite a few items I needed were not in stock. Looking forward to this good alternative.

[Mahseer]

Staying with Christmas Tops at Festival will be making mince pies from December 1 hopefully exactly as last year. No idea if other branches plan on following.

[BritManToo]

36 minutes ago, Mahseer said:

Staying with Christmas Tops at Festival will be making mince pies from December 1 hopefully exactly as last year. No idea if other branches plan on following.

do they sell mincemeat at Tops CF?

[eyecatcher]

6 hours ago, worgeordie said:

Competition for RimPing, One thing I will be shopping

for is cooked ham,in RimPing the selection from the

local German,cannot think of the name of, producer

of sausages and cooked meats,has dwindled to half

a shelf of goods,very rarely are there any cooked Ham

or frankfurter sausages.

regards Worgeordie

you are thinking about Gunther?

[Mahseer]

2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

do they sell mincemeat at Tops CF?

I would expect so judging by the number of those pies they sell but others need to confirm.

 

 

[worgeordie]

3 hours ago, eyecatcher said:

you are thinking about Gunther?

Yes ,I don't know why,but the selection in RimPing.

has gone down and down from 2 shelves of their

very good products to only half a shelf,but it always

sold.

regards worgeordie

[Mark1066]

I don't understand how RimPing manages to run out of so many things on a regular basis or why they seem unable to secure a regular supply of a particular type of margarine - the brand of the moment changes every couple of months. Is it simply down to trying to cut costs or do they have to go through an importer/distributor who is inefficient? It's not just consumables with a short shelf life either, they manage to run out of canned goods and tea on a regular basis too. Tops seem better organised but they also run out of various items more often than I would expect from a large retail organisation.

[simoh1490]

2 hours ago, Mark1066 said:

I don't understand how RimPing manages to run out of so many things on a regular basis or why they seem unable to secure a regular supply of a particular type of margarine - the brand of the moment changes every couple of months. Is it simply down to trying to cut costs or do they have to go through an importer/distributor who is inefficient? It's not just consumables with a short shelf life either, they manage to run out of canned goods and tea on a regular basis too. Tops seem better organised but they also run out of various items more often than I would expect from a large retail organisation.

Rimping started the business by shipping containers full of food to Thailand, their buyers would buy lots of whatever was good value at the time, typically discounted goods - today, the business still follows that same process to some degree which is why the lines of stock always changes so much.

[Mark1066]

3 hours ago, simoh1490 said:

Rimping started the business by shipping containers full of food to Thailand, their buyers would buy lots of whatever was good value at the time, typically discounted goods - today, the business still follows that same process to some degree which is why the lines of stock always changes so much.

Thank you, that explains a lot. They must have big margins if they’re buying their stock at discounted wholesale prices. I’ve noticed they charge as much as 30% more for some products, like Marmite, than Tops/Central.

[BritManToo]

59 minutes ago, Mark1066 said:

I’ve noticed they charge as much as 30% more for some products, like Marmite, than Tops/Centr

Marmite was exactly the same price in Rimping and Tops last time I looked.

I've changed to Vegimite as it's 30% cheaper and tastes better than the different taste NZ marmite sold in Thailand.

(You can't beat the taste of British taste Marmite though)

[elektrified]

18 hours ago, clokwise said:

Just shopping in Rimping Ruamchok today and quite a few items I needed were not in stock. Looking forward to this good alternative.

They are in the process of rearranging the layout of the entire store.

[lordblackader]

19 hours ago, Mahseer said:

Staying with Christmas Tops at Festival will be making mince pies from December 1 hopefully exactly as last year. No idea if other branches plan on following.

There is no Tops at Central Festival - it's a Central Foodhall Supermarket which has a different variety of goods. You can call it a more upmarket version of Tops if you like but it's still not a Tops. 

[Mahseer]

36 minutes ago, lordblackader said:

There is no Tops at Central Festival - it's a Central Foodhall Supermarket which has a different variety of goods. You can call it a more upmarket version of Tops if you like but it's still not a Tops. 

The credit card receipt says Tops Central Chiang Mai. That will do for me whether it is or it ain't.

[Mark1066]

31 minutes ago, Mahseer said:

The credit card receipt says Tops Central Chiang Mai. That will do for me whether it is or it ain't.

Yes, it’s run by the same division so it’s a bit silly to split hairs and say it’s not a Tops. It is.

[Mark1066]

5 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Marmite was exactly the same price in Rimping and Tops last time I looked.

I've changed to Vegimite as it's 30% cheaper and tastes better than the different taste NZ marmite sold in Thailand.

(You can't beat the taste of British taste Marmite though)

Unless you’re going back years, I think you’re mistaken. It’s something like 268 baht in Central Festival and 329 baht in RimPing, for 250g, and it’s been the same for the last year or so. I buy Vegemite too but the Marmite I’ve bought doesn’t say anything about New Zealand on it, it’s from the UK.

[simoh1490]

10 minutes ago, Mark1066 said:

Yes, it’s run by the same division so it’s a bit silly to split hairs and say it’s not a Tops. It is.

Central Food Retail owns Tops, it's just one of the many brands they own:https://corporate.tops.co.th/central-food-retail/

 

[Mark1066]

5 minutes ago, simoh1490 said:

Central Food Retail owns Tops, it's just one of the many brands they own:https://corporate.tops.co.th/central-food-retail/

 

Yes I know they do. And the Tops division is responsible for the food hall in Central Festival.

 

EDIT: Or rather they are both run by the same management team at Central. I refer to that division as Tops but you are right, it is in fact the Central Food Retail division.

[simoh1490]

2 minutes ago, Mark1066 said:

Yes I know they do. And the Tops division is responsible for the food hall in Central Festival.

Not to be pedantic but to be clear.....the supermarket at Central Festival is badged Central Food Hall, I have no idea who owns the food hall in the same building:

 

 

 

 

From the link I supplied earlier:

 

"Central Food Retail Company Limited (CFR) is the largest supermarket chain in Thailand operating since 1996, and is one of the business units under Central Group (CG). Currently, Central Food Retail Co., Ltd. Operates 205 supermarkets in six different formats: Central Food Hall,Tops market, Tops SUPERSTORE, Superkoom, Tops daily, Eathai."

[Mark1066]

3 hours ago, simoh1490 said:

Not to be pedantic but to be clear.....the supermarket at Central Festival is badged Central Food Hall, I have no idea who owns the food hall in the same building:

 

 

 

 

From the link I supplied earlier:

 

"Central Food Retail Company Limited (CFR) is the largest supermarket chain in Thailand operating since 1996, and is one of the business units under Central Group (CG). Currently, Central Food Retail Co., Ltd. Operates 205 supermarkets in six different formats: Central Food Hall,Tops market, Tops SUPERSTORE, Superkoom, Tops daily, Eathai."

Yes, what I was trying to say was that the food hall is managed by the same division of the Central Group that is responsible for Tops so I’ve always considered it as a Tops branch although you are correct that it is not a Tops store as it is not branded as such. If you’re from the UK or familiar with stores over there, I would say that differentiating between the two is analogous to debating whether you bought your groceries at a John Lewis store or a Waitrose store (although I can see from reading my earlier post, that is not how I expressed my thoughts initially so I wouldn’t accuse you of being pedantic). ????

[Trujillo]

Across the street we have Tesco; next door we have Rimping Market. How on earth would anyone think they can fill some sort of niche that the other two miss? 

It's crazy. The only thing they might have that Tesco and Rimping don't is magazines and newspapers (Tesco never sold them and Rimping discontinued stocking them).

[lordblackader]

4 hours ago, simoh1490 said:

Not to be pedantic but to be clear.....the supermarket at Central Festival is badged Central Food Hall, I have no idea who owns the food hall in the same building:

 

 

 

 

From the link I supplied earlier:

 

"Central Food Retail Company Limited (CFR) is the largest supermarket chain in Thailand operating since 1996, and is one of the business units under Central Group (CG). Currently, Central Food Retail Co., Ltd. Operates 205 supermarkets in six different formats: Central Food Hall,Tops market, Tops SUPERSTORE, Superkoom, Tops daily, Eathai."

To all the other commenters - please look at the picture above. 

Historically, Tops was part owned by a British company, the Central version was always owned by Central Group. Same as Robinson and Central Department Stores. 

 

It's not pedantic to point out that they have different names but MORE IMPORTANTLY different ranges.

 

Are people seriously arguing that the cheese selection, let alone other parts, are the same at Central Food Hall Supermarket as they are at Tops?

[simoh1490]

Just now, lordblackader said:

To all the other commenters - please look at the picture above. 

Historically, Tops was part owned by a British company, the Central version was always owned by Central Group. Same as Robinson and Central Department Stores. 

 

It's not pedantic to point out that they have different names but MORE IMPORTANTLY different ranges.

 

Are people seriously arguing that the cheese selection, let alone other parts, are the same at Central Food Hall Supermarket as they are at Tops?

I believe there is a marketing agreement between Central and Waitrose UK, as a result Waitrose products, including cheese, is sold in both Tops and Central Food Court outlets.

[Mark1066]

5 minutes ago, lordblackader said:

To all the other commenters - please look at the picture above. 

Historically, Tops was part owned by a British company, the Central version was always owned by Central Group. Same as Robinson and Central Department Stores. 

 

It's not pedantic to point out that they have different names but MORE IMPORTANTLY different ranges.

 

Are people seriously arguing that the cheese selection, let alone other parts, are the same at Central Food Hall Supermarket as they are at Tops?

 

No, nobody is arguing that, I think we were just coming at the subject from different angles.

[eyecatcher]

9 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Marmite was exactly the same price in Rimping and Tops last time I looked.

I've changed to Vegimite as it's 30% cheaper and tastes better than the different taste NZ marmite sold in Thailand.

(You can't beat the taste of British taste Marmite though)

I do remember making a special trip back to the uk for you for 3 jars of marmite to save you 30bt!

Have you got a new errand boy into Australia now?

[Mark1066]

You’d save a lot more than that - 250g of Marmite (which is the largest they seem to import here) costs the equivalent of 85 baht in the UK. Here, it’s around 265-330 baht, depending on where you shop.

[BritManToo]

Went there for the first time today,

Looking for Waitrose Mincemeat (or similar), they tried to convince me Waitrose Mint Sauce was the same product.

Looked at their dark chocolate selection, 99bht wasn't bad, then noticed only 80gm and not the normal 100gm.

Visited their cheese counter, all much more expensive than Rimping next door.

 

I probably won't go in there again.

It wasn't a bad store, they just didn't stock anything I wanted at a price I was prepared to pay.

Quite busy, probably just people like me looking, they'll have to work hard to compete with Tesco and Rimping next door.

[CALSinCM]

On 11/19/2018 at 5:05 PM, clokwise said:

Just shopping in Rimping Ruamchok today and quite a few items I needed were not in stock. Looking forward to this good alternative.

My general rule of thumb when visiting most Rimping markets is to be happy if I manage to leave the store with 80% of what I was actually shopping for.  For the absolutely massive selection they have, they do seem hard pressed to keep what I routinely purchase on the shelves.  So my guess is that what I routinely purchase is on everyone else's list too.  In regards to the all the rest - great selection of stuff that most people don't buy.  I look at the prices of some of the import stuff and simply laugh.

[CALSinCM]

20 hours ago, BritManToo said:

It wasn't a bad store, they just didn't stock anything I wanted at a price I was prepared to pay.

Now, that statement nails my overall shopping experiences on the head.  ????