On 1/16/2020 at 3:38 PM, Kerryd said:

The Thai business model seems to be this:
If someone is running a successful business, open the exact same kind of business right next to it (or as close as you can get).

If there are 2 exact same shops near each other and they both seem to be doing well, then open a 3rd shop and try to steal business from the other 2. 
Cut, rinse and repeat until none of the businesses are making any money. Then close down (or sell to someone else).

 

I've seen people do that with laundry shops. I've seen people do that with motorcycle shops. I've seen people do that with gold shops.

Friend of mine had a motorcycle shop (sales/service/rentals) in a decent location, but he didn't like to actually put any effort into anything so he didn't do good business (customers would come into the shop, he'd glance at them from the office, decide they weren't going to spend money, then ignore them).

He decided to move to a different location. A soi that already had 3 (or more) motorcycle shops within 100 meters of each other. It seems his thinking was that if they were making a living then he should be successful as well. (Ignoring that the other shops were not actually that successful and were meant more for friends/local clubs than as commercial enterprises).
Needless to say, my friend didn't do very good there either and ended up closing that place down as well.

The 7/11s/Family Marts seem to operate on the same premise as well. Instead of finding locations where there isn't any nearby competition, they try to locate next to the competition and hope to steal business from them by virtue of maybe being 20 meters closer (one direction or the other) to where some of the customers might live.

I've been told that a 7/11 franchise costs about 1 million baht. Not sure what the cost to build the store would be or to stock it initially. Labour will be fairly cheap of course (depending on number of staff and salary of the shift managers/cashiers). Probably spend as much on electricity as salaries with all the fridges and aircons running !

But basically, if you can afford the franchise fee and the cost to build/stock the story, you are probably making a return on your investment within a couple of weeks in most places.
Or until some numpty builds another one right beside you instead of 500 meters away on a different soi that doesn't have a store (yet).
 

 

That has absolutely nothing to do with Thailand.

 

Ever seen an MCD, KFC and BK - next to each other? Yes, all the time.

Ever seen an ALDI next to a LIDL or Tesco or wholefoods? Yes, all the time.

 

It totally makes sense for economic reasons to establish your shop/restaurant where already customers are, it's almost always a bad idea and way harder to open where no one else is. It also keeps angry customers away, if you are the only restaurant somewhere and there are too many to serve people get angry at you, they however don't care if they can just go nextdoor to a different one. You want to have all customer traffic in one place not divided over tons of different places, way easier to catch those customers. It's a win win, only bad businessmen care about the competetion, good businessmen care only about their own business.

 

Same reason all tech companies are in Silicon Valley - convenience and because everyone else is - it's way easier to find skilled workers in an area with lots of skilled companies..

54 minutes ago, joskeshake said:

if you can do this in 5 or 7 min, congratulations,must write you in Olympics.

According to Google maps it takes 21 minutes (and that's a fast walk) from Soi Kopai 4 to LK Metro. I don't think there's a Soi Kopai closer to LK Metro, and there are many Soi Kopai south of South Pattaya Rd down to Thepprasit Rd. 

15 hours ago, Max69xl said:

I think he meant he'd never seen a 7/11 which didn't stay open 24/7.

Why would you say that?  In effect calling me a liar!

Just off the top of my head I can show 3 x 7/11's that have closed.  One is a Charoen Optic shop, another is a gym and the third is a restaurant.

Don't open your mouth when you don't know what you're talking about.  

21 hours ago, Max69xl said:

According to Google maps it takes 21 minutes (and that's a fast walk) from Soi Kopai 4 to LK Metro. I don't think there's a Soi Kopai closer to LK Metro, and there are many Soi Kopai south of South Pattaya Rd down to Thepprasit Rd. 

yes but we are not talking about walking jesus wept....

21 hours ago, Max69xl said:

According to Google maps it takes 21 minutes (and that's a fast walk) from Soi Kopai 4 to LK Metro. I don't think there's a Soi Kopai closer to LK Metro, and there are many Soi Kopai south of South Pattaya Rd down to Thepprasit Rd. 

Who said anything about walking ?

On 1/18/2020 at 12:27 PM, Don Mega said:

Is driving a car an Olympic event ?

it would be if you can do it in this Pattaya traffic

 

2 minutes ago, joskeshake said:

it would be if you can do it in this Pattaya traffic

 

I do it daily.