Here’s what it is like to visit a shopping mall in Thailand during COVID-19

[webfact]

Here’s what it is like to visit a shopping mall in Thailand during COVID-19

 

Image: New TV

 

Thailand on Sunday opened shopping malls for the first time in two months as part of the second phase of easing of restrictions put in place to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

 

From now on, if you visit a mall in Thailand, you can expect a significantly different experience to what you have been used to before the coronavirus pandemic.

 

There are now strict social distancing and screening procedures in effect at malls up and down the country.

 

While the exact screening requirement may vary slightly depending on which mall you visit you can expect similar to the description below to be in place at your local mall.

 

Thaivisa on Sunday visited the BluPort and Market Village shopping malls in Hua Hin.

 

Thai Chana QR system

 

To enter both malls, everyone was required to scan a QR code which registers them into the ‘Thai Chana’ contact tracing system put in place by the Thai government. 

 

The reason for using the Thai Chana system is that should there be another outbreak of COVID-19, officials can quickly trace anyone who has been in contact with those infected.

 

Thai Chana had previously been described by officials and media in Thailand as an app, but it isn’t an app at all, rather an online registration system. You scan a QR code which is displayed at the entrance and exit to the mall. 

 

You can scan the code using the QR scanner on your phone. On iOS, this can be done using Apple’s Wallet application.

 

Image: New TV

 

There was also an option to scan in using the Line app.

 

You scan the code and it redirects you to the Thai Chana website, where you hit the green icon to show you have entered the mall. At both BluPort and Market Village there were English speaking staff on hand to assist people in using the Thai Chana service for the first time.

 

The QR system was very easy to use and although strange at first, wasn’t that much of an inconvenience.

 

For anyone who doesn’t have a smartphone, people could register by entering their name and telephone number on sheets of paper placed outside the entrance to the malls. 

 

The papers also asked for Thai ID number and/or passport number, but we noted that no one had written those down, instead just opting to give their name and phone number.

 

Everyone entering the mall was also required to wear a face mask and had their temperature taken.

 

We were not asked to show ID at either mall we entered.

 

Entering stores inside the mall

 

As well as scanning in when entering the mall, you are also required to scan in when entering each store inside the mall. We visited H&M and Uniqlo inside BluPort and both stores had a member of staff ensuring that customers had scanned the QR code when entering the store, and scanning again when leaving. 

 

This was perhaps the biggest inconvenience and pretty much put an end to the casual wandering in and out of stores people would typically do when visiting a mall.

 

Stores were also giving people alcohol to spray on their hands before entering.

 

Food courts and restaurants

 

Food courts and restaurants were open and while there didn’t appear to be any screens separating diners, tables and chairs had been removed to ensure that social distancing could be properly enforced. 

 

If you are going to visit a restaurant as part of a group of say more than 3 or 4 people, you can expect to be sat at different tables.

 

When eating, people are obviously allowed to take their masks off but you are expected to put it back once you leave the restaurant.

 

The above was our experience of visiting malls in Hua Hin but expect the requirements to differ slightly from region to region.

 

In Bangkok, there were reports people were required to pass through thermal imaging scanners when entering a mall, while at another, people were having their feet sprayed with disinfectant.

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2020-05-18

 

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[Thaiwrath]

2 minutes ago, webfact said:

Here’s what it is like to visit a shopping mall in Thailand during COVID-19

In 2 words............................A joke !

[OnTheGround]

When this become common knowledge, many will hesitate to visit any mall. At the entrance is expected, but also at all shops? Too much.

Requested to answer feedback when leave each store, and be nagged to give a good feedback. Way over the top.

No phone, requires passport to enter malls.

No phone, no passport, denied entry.

 

Will be interesting to see how (many) few visitors the malls will get.

 

[kotsak]

IF the QR scan and the subsequent procedure doesn't involve any personal information exchange, as this article claims, how do they plan to contact the customers when needed? ????

[Crossy]

25 minutes ago, kotsak said:

IF the QR scan and the subsequent procedure doesn't involve any personal information exchange, as this article claims, how do they plan to contact the customers when needed? ????

 

They've got your phone number, entering it is part of the check-in process, they can call you ????

 

[kotsak]

11 minutes ago, Crossy said:

36 minutes ago, kotsak said:

IF the QR scan and the subsequent procedure doesn't involve any personal information exchange, as this article claims, how do they plan to contact the customers when needed? ????

 

They've got your phone number, entering it is part of the check-in process, they can call you ????

 

You mean my local pizza joint phone number I wrote down? ????

[GoFaster]

42 minutes ago, kotsak said:

You mean my local pizza joint phone number I wrote down? ????

Yes exactly so when you have been in contact with a spreader they won't be able to contact you . So yeah go for it. It's called Darwinism

 

 

 

 

 

 

[KhunBENQ]

So useless.

They register that you have entered a big mall with maybe some hundreds of other people.

Then they find Covid infected Mr.X. has been there (during some timespan of hours?).

And then? Inform hundreds of customers: Mr.X. has been there.

And then? Hundreds to quarantine or what?

 

Real useful methods can be studied elsewhere.

Mobile app using Bluetooth function to actually trace if an infected was CLOSE to you.

 

 

[graemeaylward]

Since the lockdown, I have been able to shop at the large Tesco Lotus near Khon Kaen Conference Centre.  My temperature was taken and i was given a squirt of alcohol gel on my hands, the obligatory mask, plus there were marks on the floor to denote safe social distancing. It was all very civilised.  Today, Monday, I went, and there was a scrum of people just inside the door, with no social distancing whatsoever being enforced, so I stayed on the mark outside the door to let the queue subside which it eventually did despite some people trying to "jump the queue" and ignore the marks! There were various notices in Thai about the QR code and there were tables with lists on them.  I asked the assistant what I was supposed to do, she said "Line QR code"  I said "NO" so she directed me to the table to put name and phone number.  I asked why, but she did not understand.  I asked if the table and pen had been cleaned with disinfectant (knowing they hadn't) and got another blank look.  Many Thais had already written their, or somebody else's name and phone number, on one of 4 paper lists and I did the same.  Apparently, I was supposed to do the same on leaving although I walked straight out and nobody stopped me.  So, if they check their lists at some point, I will be lost somewhere in the store!  I do think that this is a little OTT as when the virus was around in Khon Kaen and other areas, we could shop without this hassle, but IF the Government figures are correct, Covid-19 has been all but eradicated without the need to track people. By the way if people get within the 2m social distancing distance, I shout at them, especially at the checkouts ????

 

[KhunBENQ]

2 hours ago, Thaiwrath said:

In 2 words............................A joke !

Now they are cracking up completely.

I am frustrated of the idea to go out and shop.

For many weeks it was wearing mask, getting temperature checked, some cleaning gel (at Makro, 7/11, Tesco etc.).

 

 

[KhunBENQ]

So far it was "don't forget your mask before going to shop".
Now also "take your pen with you".

And of course shopping bag.

The list grows longer

[Thailand]

Airport plaza this morning filled in form with date ,time and name and address. When leaving filled in another form with same details. One form with time in/time out would have been sufficient.

 

Temp check and sanitizer spray at entrance, bought a coffee another temp check and spray. Went in to Watsons, another temp/spray. Wife wento buy some cosmetics at her fave shop- yes another temp/spray station.

Came home. No temp check or spray,at least not yet!

[n00dle]

3 hours ago, OnTheGround said:

When this become common knowledge, many will hesitate to visit any mall. At the entrance is expected, but also at all shops? Too much.

Requested to answer feedback when leave each store, and be nagged to give a good feedback. Way over the top.

No phone, requires passport to enter malls.

No phone, no passport, denied entry.

 

Will be interesting to see how (many) few visitors the malls will get.

 

They will get plenty. There will be a rush to comply by businesses and an eventual slackening as folks become bored of the routine.

 

Meanwhile people on here who rarely leave the house or make a single trip to makro once every two weeks will bleat about injustice and invasion of privacy, make ridiculous claims that they will take their business eleswhere and their beleagured wives will continue doing what they do despite the hollow objections.

 

Personally its been six months since I set foot in a mall, but had I reason, I cant see how writing down a name and number on a random sheet of paper will breach my treasured privacy in any way.

 

I suspect the same people complaining about their privacy are the same who do not even cringe when presenting membership/discount cards to cashiers for which they have already provided this information and beyond registering their location registers every product they buy. 

[KhunBENQ]

4 minutes ago, Thailand said:

Came home. No temp check or spray,at least not yet!

Call yourself happy.

Two weeks ago I came back from Khon Kaen.

Daughter jumped out with alcohol spray.

Applied on clothes and hands.

Last week came back from Udon Thani.

Wife insisted on changing clothes immediately.

Off to the bathroom.

 

I read somewhere that Thai people are the most Covid anxious in the world.

The rulers know how to keep them under control.

[DrTuner]

I think they should take two pints of blood and do a PCR test when entering. Malls are temples for consumerism, they deserve to die.

[DrTuner]

45 minutes ago, KhunBENQ said:

Real useful methods can be studied elsewhere.

Mobile app using Bluetooth function to actually trace if an infected was CLOSE to you.

That too only works if you keep bluetooth on.

 

The only real solution is to embed the tracing into the operating system, Android/iOS. And that's a step too far IMHO. Fact is the virus will spread everywhere and the only thing we can do without falling into an authoritarian trap is to accept there will be casualties and keep the measures so that the hospitals will be able to cope. That's until, if ever, there is a cure or vaccine. 

[Guderian]

I was going to say that I'm glad I hardly ever go to a shopping mall, but then I read that the same system is being rolled out in Tesco and Big C, and even the 7-elevens, so it seems there's no avoiding it. 

[KhunBENQ]

1 minute ago, DrTuner said:

That too only works if you keep bluetooth on.

Yes and only a totalitarian country could make all that working.

 

In Germany they are arguing about such an app since weeks (all voluntarily).

Hope they get it ready before Covid is history.

 

[DaLa]

I have been shopping less in the last 2 months, and no matter where I have shopped there has been the now compulsory temp check and alcohol gel squirt.  Quite acceptable and obviously useful to a certain degree. Went yesterday to Central Plaza Rattanathibet and it was chaos.

The procedures in place and implementation reminded me of one of the fine examples of the youthful ego and childish management skills exhibited on one of Alan Sugar's Apprentice 'tasks'.

[GaryAdriaenssens]

BIG BROTHER at his best! Went to Emporium yesterday and although it didn't take long to being checked and all that stuff I went to the Asiabooks store and guess what? All over again, so in a matter of 30-40 seconds I went upstairs I could've been infected... Unbelievable! ????

[AlQaholic]

I can't believe some of the negative attitudes (not everyone) towards how it is done in Thailand. The only reason there was no rapid spread in Thailand (yet) was luck and that there were relatively few tourists coming in with the virus before serious tracing and tracking was put in place. I have been happy and thankful for the last one and a half month that these procedures have been in place at my local supermarkets and at work.

[Captain Monday]

4 hours ago, Thaiwrath said:

In 2 words............................A joke !

 Similar In March minus the App exactly how to visit a shopping Mall in Korea

> I think the tracing apps have started there also<

They did not lock down entire economy.

 

[brucec64]

3 hours ago, OnTheGround said:

When this become common knowledge, many will hesitate to visit any mall. At the entrance is expected, but also at all shops? Too much.

Requested to answer feedback when leave each store, and be nagged to give a good feedback. Way over the top.

No phone, requires passport to enter malls.

No phone, no passport, denied entry.

 

Will be interesting to see how (many) few visitors the malls will get.

 

Probably a lot because most people dont see small inconveniences as insurmountable tasks.

[brucec64]

30 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

That too only works if you keep bluetooth on.

 

The only real solution is to embed the tracing into the operating system, Android/iOS. And that's a step too far IMHO. Fact is the virus will spread everywhere and the only thing we can do without falling into an authoritarian trap is to accept there will be casualties and keep the measures so that the hospitals will be able to cope. That's until, if ever, there is a cure or vaccine. 

Buy a Huawei phone. Embedded tracing has always been a "feature"!

[JCP108]

8 minutes ago, AlQaholic said:

... that there were relatively few tourists coming in with the virus before serious tracing and tracking was put in place.

Really?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[garygooner]

4 hours ago, Thaiwrath said:

In 2 words............................A joke !

In two words............. Not fun! 

[david555]

1 hour ago, KhunBENQ said:

Call yourself happy.

Two weeks ago I came back from Khon Kaen.

Daughter jumped out with alcohol spray.

Applied on clothes and hands.

Last week came back from Udon Thani.

Wife insisted on changing clothes immediately.

Off to the bathroom.

 

I read somewhere that Thai people are the most Covid anxious in the world.

The rulers know how to keep them under control.

I think your wife and offspring believe Minister Anutin ….. I don't envy you ….

[NanLaew]

4 hours ago, OnTheGround said:

When this become common knowledge, many will hesitate to visit any mall. At the entrance is expected, but also at all shops? Too much.

Requested to answer feedback when leave each store, and be nagged to give a good feedback. Way over the top.

No phone, requires passport to enter malls.

No phone, no passport, denied entry.

 

Will be interesting to see how (many) few visitors the malls will get.

 

Central Mall Udon was slammed by 1 p.m. yesterday. Locals happily queuing to scan the QR code with their phones and get in.

 

A few old farangs were seen stomping off muttering about nonsense, incompetence, civil liberties, big brother and the like.

[Curmudgeon1]

Why? 

[david555]

if you do not have credit or data credit on the number you use for QR scanning, the website gives notice : "website not available " , so finally those on guard on entrance give up and let me in after another temperature scanning …… that is how it worked for me at Big C ,  

 

I have 2 numbers on smartphone, one always credit empty as it eat any money...., even loaded in very short time it eat my credit even not using to call , a real mistery AIS people can not find why even , so I only load once a year 100 baht  to keep the line open for 1 year, for  receiving only , other number for calling , that one keeps the money at normal rate …