You see lots Pattaya bar owners and youtube viogers on social media .. saying when this is over (Bat flu)  they will be throwing a big party at their bar to celebrate.. who exactly is this party for ????....the 2 week millionaires  will not be back in numbers until "God knows when" and most intelligent expat will be very cautious of returning to the bar scene too quickly for obvious reasons ..... the old saying   "looking through rose tinted glasses" comes to mind ,

These people are only kidding themselves ...Sad but true..

The truth can be very hard to accept.

There are quite a few well established bars in Jomtien I've seen the past few days...furniture and fittings gone and expect to see a lot more over the coming weeks being vacated. I think these owners have realised it's gonna be a long haul befor any money can be made and decided to cut their losses. You are right there won't be anyone except for the expats that are probably more than happy to stay home with cheap beer, WiFi, music and a few friends rather than going anywhere having to wear masks and worry about seating arrangements.. If you are in Banglay, it will be hit even harder than Pattaya as there are so many bars there now competing in such a small area...even saw one there on the high street befor Covid with drinks at 40Baht...that was high season so was even desperate then....it's a shame but it's worldwide and not only bars that are suffering

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You are right there won't be anyone except for the expats that are probably more than happy to stay home with cheap beer,

Where is this cheap beer?

I cannot find any.

Lots of us didn't have the bar kind of fun for a long time.

So if one of my favorite places would reopen and have a party I am pretty sure I would go.

The places which are like are basically only visited by the "locals" and very few tourists. Who is going to infect us?

4 minutes ago, fishtank said:

Where is this cheap beer?

I cannot find any.

Any supplier is at least a third if not a lot more cheaper than any bar

13 minutes ago, baansgr said:

even saw one there on the high street befor Covid with drinks at 40Baht...that was high season so was even desperate then....it's a shame but it's worldwide and not only bars that are suffering

You are quite right in pointing that out, even before covid the situation was dire for many bars, restaurants and economy in general.

Covid, or the fear of covid, may be the final nail in the coffin we're talking since years.

Yep, I believe the bar scenes are well and truly going to be far and few between, those that survive it will have to lift their game to accommodate the expats that like to socialise, play pool, take a young filly to task etc etc, so their venues will have to cover everything, and the alcohol will have to also be reasonable, until things return to normal with tourists returning, if ever.

 

Sad days ahead, been coming to Thailand since 2005 and this is gonna be the biggest change I would have seen since I almost took a ladyboy back to my hotel by mistake on my first visit, till shim confessed to me on the way to my hotel.

 

Me

 

wow you were certainly in a hurry to get back to that hotel 
hope you had enough energy for the encore????????????????????????????????????????????????

10 hours ago, baansgr said:

Any supplier is at least a third if not a lot more cheaper than any bar

Only because bars are a rip off.

Beer in Makro or Tesco is not exactly cheap in my opinion.

Remember the incident (on soi 7 was it ?) when a tourist got into an altercation with the staff at a bar because the beer was "more expensive than he could buy it for in a 7-11" ?

Of course it costs more in a bar.
W.T.F. do people think ? The bar doesn't have to pay rent or other bills (water, electricity, cable, ect) ? Doesn't have to pay staff ? Doesn't have to pay "other" expenses in order to stay open ?

I'm sure people would love to find a bar that sells beer cheaper than what they pay for it from their supplier. Because that makes all kinds of sense, doesn't it ? Buy for 30 baht, sell for 25.
Yeah, real smart.

As you said,    its wishful thinking

11 hours ago, mauGR1 said:

You are quite right in pointing that out, even before covid the situation was dire for many bars, restaurants and economy in general.

Covid, or the fear of covid, may be the final nail in the coffin we're talking since years.

Indeed, the bar owners can pap on all they like but aren’t kidding anyone that the whole city was up the creek well before the virus.

Now trying to raise good publicity feeding fat locals and making sure it’s filmed “look at me and my bars generosity” Please!

These same groups of bars, price fixed and upped prices chasing punters away when they had punters. 

A positive note, there will be enough spare bars for the vloggers/blaggers to have one each and recount old memories amongst themselves.

Off topic posts and replies removed

1 hour ago, Kerryd said:

Remember the incident (on soi 7 was it ?) when a tourist got into an altercation with the staff at a bar because the beer was "more expensive than he could buy it for in a 7-11" ?

Of course it costs more in a bar.
W.T.F. do people think ? The bar doesn't have to pay rent or other bills (water, electricity, cable, ect) ? Doesn't have to pay staff ? Doesn't have to pay "other" expenses in order to stay open ?

You think a 7-11 doesn't pay rent/utilities/staff and don't forget the franchise fees.

 

7-11 appears to make a profit on it's alcohol sales ...... so no reason a bar can't selling at the same price.

5 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

You think a 7-11 doesn't pay rent/utilities/staff and don't forget the franchise fees.

7-11 appears to make a profit on it's alcohol sales ...... so no reason a bar can't selling at the same price.

I never said that. Of course anybody selling something is going to try and make a profit. Even the distributors that sell to the bars.
Though I imagine 7-11 gets their stock directly from the manufacturer which would allow them to sell it cheaper. Most bars would have to go through the middle-man (distributor) though, so they'd have to sell at a slightly higher price to make a profit.

It was the guy in the article about the altercation with the bar staff who was the one that (allegedly) made the claim about the beer being cheaper in a 7-11.

Found the story - it was back in 2017. Supposedly the guy was charged 90 baht for a beer at the bar. The female (manager or owner ?) claimed he tried to pay only 30 baht after saying that was the "convenience store" price. That's when she (supposedly) told him that they were in a beer bar, not a 7-11. 

Anyways, the point was that there are people who seem to think that they should be able to buy beer in a bar as cheap as they could get it anywhere else. (I don't drink beer but my understanding is that it is cheaper at 7-11 than at your average bar.)
 

Just now, Kerryd said:

Anyways, the point was that there are people who seem to think that they should be able to buy beer in a bar as cheap as they could get it anywhere else. (I don't drink beer but my understanding is that it is cheaper at 7-11 than at your average bar.)

That's certainly the case in Vietnam and Cambodia where beer is sold at 50c-$1 a small bottle in many bars & restaurants.

One expat bar in Da Nang I frequented sold beer at $1/bottle normal price and buy one, get one free early evenings. They were still making a profit on the BOGOF offer.

Why would anyone believe what vested interest bar owners say, it'll take more than running a slick media self promotion operation to buck reality.

14 hours ago, banglay said:

You see lots Pattaya bar owners and youtube viogers on social media .. saying when this is over (Bat flu)  they will be throwing a big party at their bar to celebrate.

I guess the party will be to get rid of the beer that has been sitting in the storage for a year, as that will probably be when the bars are allowed to open again.

 

Guess I'm gonna give it a miss

1 hour ago, twocatsmac said:

Indeed, the bar owners can pap on all they like but aren’t kidding anyone that the whole city was up the creek well before the virus.

Now trying to raise good publicity feeding fat locals and making sure it’s filmed “look at me and my bars generosity” Please!

These same groups of bars, price fixed and upped prices chasing punters away when they had punters. 

A positive note, there will be enough spare bars for the vloggers/blaggers to have one each and recount old memories amongst themselves.

Yep, although i am not much into bars, my point was that the economy was not that good long before the virus, and not only in Thailand.

3 hours ago, fishtank said:

Only because bars are a rip off.

Beer in Makro or Tesco is not exactly cheap in my opinion.

especially the monopolised local pish

Why should you go to a bar? 

 

- Often very noisy

- Expensive drinks

- Staff that asks you for drinks

- Paying bar fines for service that you can order on the internet or get at other places without paying it

 

Did I forget a reason? Sure you can meet friends. But do you really need a noisy bar for this? 

Given that many older folk will still be worried about the virus, even when bars are allowed to reopen, they might decide that it's safer to continue to drink at home, maybe getting together with their mates every day that way rather than meeting up at a bar beer. OTOH, many younger people think the whole thing's been a storm in a teacup and will go back to close-proximity socialising in discos and night clubs as soon as they are allowed to. The way that the government and the bars, etc., handle the social distancing issue in the future may make a difference, but overall I'd expect to see bar beers find life even tougher than it was pre-C19 while the venues favoured by the young will continue to boom.

 

(P.S. I'm not quite sure where Gogo bars figure in this prediction, as they tend to attract a clientelle of all ages, though altering their shows and setup to attract younger mongers might not be a bad strategy.)

2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

That's certainly the case in Vietnam and Cambodia where beer is sold at 50c-$1 a small bottle in many bars & restaurants.

One expat bar in Da Nang I frequented sold beer at $1/bottle normal price and buy one, get one free early evenings. They were still making a profit on the BOGOF offer.

Perhaps they don't have to pay the usual suspects or at least not as much. I'd say a high % of a bar beer profits in Pattaya goes into more than one back pocket.

50 minutes ago, Guderian said:

Given that many older folk will still be worried about the virus, even when bars are allowed to reopen, they might decide that it's safer to continue to drink at home, maybe getting together with their mates every day that way rather than meeting up at a bar beer. OTOH, many younger people think the whole thing's been a storm in a teacup and will go back to close-proximity socialising in discos and night clubs as soon as they are allowed to. The way that the government and the bars, etc., handle the social distancing issue in the future may make a difference, but overall I'd expect to see bar beers find life even tougher than it was pre-C19 while the venues favoured by the young will continue to boom.

 

(P.S. I'm not quite sure where Gogo bars figure in this prediction, as they tend to attract a clientelle of all ages, though altering their shows and setup to attract younger mongers might not be a bad strategy.)

There have been too many bar beers in Pattaya for decades. If this gets rid of most and the ones that remain can provide a better environment than before, at least some might survive. Think Hua Hin but with more attractive bargirls.

Pattaya bar industry was completely in a death spiral pre Covid landing with huge swathes of Pattaya empty and deserted of Tourists.

With Covid (and lets be generous) removing for a long time at least 50% of those that were visiting than we've gone from a death spiral to an oak coffin.

Could well see as high as 90% of existing bars from 2019 gone for good

1 hour ago, Oldie said:

Why should you go to a bar? 

 

- Often very noisy

- Expensive drinks

- Staff that asks you for drinks

- Paying bar fines for service that you can order on the internet or get at other places without paying it

 

Did I forget a reason? Sure you can meet friends. But do you really need a noisy bar for this? 

I made my friends at the bar. On line is too easy to fake it.

I never had a barbeer girl ask me for a drink. Try a better class of barbeer.

15 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I made my friends at the bar. On line is too easy to fake it.

I never had a barbeer girl ask me for a drink. Try a better class of barbeer.

Never  "Hello sexy man. Where you come from? How long you stay? You pay drink for me?"  ??? 

56 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I made my friends at the bar. On line is too easy to fake it.

I never had a barbeer girl ask me for a drink. Try a better class of barbeer.

I don't beleive that for a second, if they were not doing that they would not last 5 minutes.