How Does It Work

[lampard10]

Can anyone please tell me, Thai or Falang, how the Thai pricing structure works. It is beyond me.

Examples.

a) 1; Packets of yeast from the bulk supplier cost 155 baht

2; Same packets in a supermarket cost 117 baht

1: Ayam baked beans from the Ayam rep cost 30 baht a tin

2: In the supermarkets they are 26 baht a tin.

c) 1; Grolsch beer from importer 107 baht

2; From Carrefour 98 baht.

d) Makro;

1; 5 litrs of Catsan cost 120 baht

2; 10 liters of same product cost 255 baht

1; 24 computor ink cost 215 baht

2; If you buy a pack of two, it costs 435 baht

1; Fresh milk 30 baht

2; twin pack save pack 65 baht

But the one that takes the biscuit was when I.P. star first came out

1; Special introductory offer, first customers only. 20,000 installation

2; When the offer was finished it was anything from 8,000 baht up.

There are literally hundreds of these weird things around.

Any more to report?

[andy1308]

I will add one.

Sales of lottery tickets in Bangkok over Songkran were poor due to people being upcountry, etc, so instead of reducing their prices to attract more sales vendors increased their prices to make up for the shortfall - which earned a rebuke from the Government who told them not to do it.

That tells you all you need to know about Thai business mentality.

[think_too_mut]

Can anyone please tell me, Thai or Falang, how the Thai pricing structure works. It is beyond me.

Examples.

a) 1; Packets of yeast from the bulk supplier cost 155 baht

2; Same packets in a supermarket cost 117 baht

There are literally hundreds of these weird things around.

Any more to report?

It's quite simple, the world largest employer (WalMart) had perfected it in their slogan: "We don't sell to you, we buy it for you".

Puchasing power of the large chains make it easy to make contracts with the source, bypassing the reps and importers. So, Grolsch price was set between headquarters of Lotus and Grolsch in Europe. The local rep could well be unaware what is coming into the country.

Thai reps/importers look mainly after small fry and try to keep their head above the water line.

Edited April 24, 2007 by think_too_mut

[sonicdragon]

Can anyone please tell me, Thai or Falang, how the Thai pricing structure works. It is beyond me.

Examples.

a) 1; Packets of yeast from the bulk supplier cost 155 baht

2; Same packets in a supermarket cost 117 baht

There are literally hundreds of these weird things around.

Any more to report?

It's quite simple, the world largest employer (WalMart) had perfected it in their slogan: "We don't sell to you, we buy it for you".

Puchasing power of the large chains make it easy to make contracts with the source, bypassing the reps and importers. So, Grolsch price was set between headquarters of Lotus and Grolsch in Europe. The local rep could well be unaware what is coming into the country.

Thai reps/importers look mainly after small fry and try to keep their head above the water line.

Agreed, for the wholesale price being more expensive than at large retail outlets (although isnt makro supposedly a wholesale outlet anyway ?), but what about apparent paradox of larger single quantites costing more than equivalent quantities in multiples ? I too have noticed that a lot.

[soundman]

I must say to the OP - at least you are checking....

When I am organizing purchase contracts for my company, I quite often find this problem. These days when I need a new product, I check with the source first, then his wholesaler, then with one of his larger retailers. Quite often I find that the large retailer will give me the best price for the product I need. If possible, I try & find out what other business's of similar size to mine are paying for the same item too.

I tend to find the big retailers, who get the biggest percentage discounts, love to have a few large customers, who they make relatively little profit from, just to keep their numbers up & therefore their purchasing position very strong.

You have to be a little careful though. In some instances there may be only a handful of business's using a particular product & the manufacturer quickly works out who's using what. You may get a better price on paper from the retailer or wholesaler, but will quickly find that the item is always "out of stock" until you order it from the manufacturer at RRP.

Cheers,

Soundman.

[Wekhin]

Must have been marketing promotion of some sorts. Be calm.

[samtam]

What about the practice of putting up a price on a condo sale, once you have an interested party willing to buy? I've seen that a couple of times. In both cases it drove away the buyer. One of the condos, now three years later is still on the market. Go figure.