How do these small phone shops in the malls survive

[Kenny202]

Usually in most malls have an area with up to 10 or 15 of these little phone shops, all usually look the same (perhaps same owner). The new stock they have is usually priced at least 20% higher than you would get from a reputable shop (Powerbuy, Big C, Samsung, Oppo, Banana etc). They don't often have much second hand stuff and when they do it is OLD and they want practically new price for those too. I know many don't do repairs....they will accept a phone for repair but send to someone else. Most of them don't sell many accessories and most malls have specialist accessory shops way cheaper than them anyway. I have always wondered how they make any money? They must be paying huge rent in a mall.

 

Am currently looking for a cheap second hand phone. Just a secondhand phone but with decent storage. Model I know would suit me (already have one) new street price even on Lazada, BIg C etc about 5500 baht. Anything second hand here on say Facebook marketplace (I would only buy face to face) about 500 baht off the new price. Seems to be across the board even if the phone is a year old. I would think a phone 3 - 6 months old would be about 50 -60% of the new price. Not in Thailand apparently. The only ones I see round this price are clearly scammers with new accounts and no pick up

 

 

 

[ratcatcher]

       ?

[giddyup]

Like the young girl selling matches said when asked why her matches cost $100 a box, "sir, I only have to sell one".

[Benmart]

15 hours ago, Kenny202 said:

Usually in most malls have an area with up to 10 or 15 of these little phone shops, all usually look the same (perhaps same owner). The new stock they have is usually priced at least 20% higher than you would get from a reputable shop (Powerbuy, Big C, Samsung, Oppo, Banana etc). They don't often have much second hand stuff and when they do it is OLD and they want practically new price for those too. I know many don't do repairs....they will accept a phone for repair but send to someone else. Most of them don't sell many accessories and most malls have specialist accessory shops way cheaper than them anyway. I have always wondered how they make any money? They must be paying huge rent in a mall.

 

Am currently looking for a cheap second hand phone. Just a secondhand phone but with decent storage. Model I know would suit me (already have one) new street price even on Lazada, BIg C etc about 5500 baht. Anything second hand here on say Facebook marketplace (I would only buy face to face) about 500 baht off the new price. Seems to be across the board even if the phone is a year old. I would think a phone 3 - 6 months old would be about 50 -60% of the new price. Not in Thailand apparently. The only ones I see round this price are clearly scammers with new accounts and no pick up

 

 

 

Buyer beware and buy cheap, buy twice.

[Sheist]

Investigate ASUS ZENFONE Max Pro (M1).  There is a ZB602KL and ZB601KL.

 

I got mine from Lazada this year (the 601), 4400b NEW with 6gigs ram, 5000 mAh battery, 6 inch full-HD, and Android 9 update ready to download.  3-slot dual-sim+microSD and near-stock Android 8.1.  No idea where they all went from Lazada now!

 

 

[GeorgeCross]

how do they survive?

 

10 baht phone case.. 200 baht street price

 

400 baht farang price ????

 

thats how

 

 

[Laza 45]

It was quite a few years ago now.. I took my wife shopping for a new phone at the shopping center (big at the time).. we looked around.. picked a phone.. got the price.. and I said we should check with the other stalls.. My wife says.. '..no good.. all stalls owned by the same lady..'! 

[Kenny202]

54 minutes ago, Laza 45 said:

It was quite a few years ago now.. I took my wife shopping for a new phone at the shopping center (big at the time).. we looked around.. picked a phone.. got the price.. and I said we should check with the other stalls.. My wife says.. '..no good.. all stalls owned by the same lady..'! 

I believe that to be true. But there prices are usually 20% higher than proper Samsung, Oppo, Jaymart, Banana shops which are usually close by. Unless they offer terms. 10% down and 1000 baht a month for the rest of your life.

 

And they don't tend to sell accessories anymore. Usually shops in the mall specializes in only phone accessories and very cheap. I don't get it

[Lacessit]

They do seem to have very few customers. My GF's grand-daughter bought an iPhone, 3000 baht. It expired in about a month. No warranty. I usually buy secondhand if I can, but not smartphones.

[Kenny202]

Any second hand phones they have are old and the same price as new, and their new phones 20% more than normal street price. Unless you were turning over late model second hand phones quickly, they would be old model second hand phones pretty quickly and value dropped accordingly

 

[Laza 45]

18 minutes ago, Kenny202 said:

I believe that to be true. But there prices are usually 20% higher than proper Samsung, Oppo, Jaymart, Banana shops which are usually close by. Unless they offer terms. 10% down and 1000 baht a month for the rest of your life.

 

And they don't tend to sell accessories anymore. Usually shops in the mall specializes in only phone accessories and very cheap. I don't get it

I have no idea how it works.. rent must be high in the malls.. I had a glass screen replaced on my phone recently at one of the stalls.. 100 Bt..In Australia they would have told me to throw it away and buy a new one.. My wife said it should have been 8o Bt..!  I can't see how they can pay the rent and eat.. 

[Adam219]

It's hard to find a repair shop that wont try to rip you off as well as do a good job.

 

 

I definitely would be hesitant to get a decent phone repaired again, one repair shop replaced my partners OLED screen with in-screen finger print sensor for an LCD with no finger print sensor, for the "low" price of 2500 baht (it's a 1000 baht part on ebay).

 

[LawrenceN]

Regarding Facebook marketplace, I price my secondhand stuff realistically. I have found that the first question from potential Thai buyers is "How much will you come down?" That's why the prices posted there are so close to new. You're expected to offer half or less. Farang buyers are more likely to see the posted price is reasonable. 

[CrunchWrapSupreme]

Around the BKK CBD, like centralwOrld, Siam Paragon, MBK, I once commented to the wife: "Gee, those cell phone ladies sure are done up. Look at all that make up, and those nice clothes. They do all that to sell just a couple of phones a day? How much profit? I think all that make up costs more."

 

Then she says to me, "They go with customers." Bow chicka bow. Extra communication services. Making those connections. Selecting the correct USB port. Ok I'll stop now.

[elgenon]

2 hours ago, CrunchWrapSupreme said:

Around the BKK CBD, like centralwOrld, Siam Paragon, MBK, I once commented to the wife: "Gee, those cell phone ladies sure are done up. Look at all that make up, and those nice clothes. They do all that to sell just a couple of phones a day? How much profit? I think all that make up costs more."

 

Then she says to me, "They go with customers." Bow chicka bow. Extra communication services. Making those connections. Selecting the correct USB port. Ok I'll stop now.

You can call for takeaway?

[lovethai123]

1. Prices are higher than online.

2. Since they have a regular job, they charge more for a date. And men happily pay as they think they got a girl with a regular job. 

[lovethai123]

On 11/17/2020 at 5:57 PM, Adam219 said:

It's hard to find a repair shop that wont try to rip you off as well as do a good job.

 

 

I definitely would be hesitant to get a decent phone repaired again, one repair shop replaced my partners OLED screen with in-screen finger print sensor for an LCD with no finger print sensor, for the "low" price of 2500 baht (it's a 1000 baht part on ebay).

 

Got charging port repaired for 700 baht though the price for the same job is 80 baht in my country.

[rickudon]

I used one of these stalls for a replacement battery and a new memory chip. The battery lost 75% of it's capacity in about 9 months ...

[jackdd]

Buy phone cases in bulk for 20-50 THB, sell them for 100-300THB.

Buy screen protectors in bulk for 20 THB, sell them for 100 THB.

Sometimes a repair, charging 500THB to replace a 200THB part.

The person working there makes 10k a month, rent maybe 20k.

If they manage to sell one item per hour this does about work out for them, quite a nice job compared to working on a rice farm.

[lovethai123]

13 hours ago, jackdd said:

 

If they manage to sell one item per hour this does about work out for them, quite a nice job compared to working on a rice farm.

and u have a chance to find a foreign "boyfriend"

[dddave]

For less than B3000, you can get a new Redmi 9A 2/32, will take an SD card for additional memory or one of the RealMi phones in the same range.  Both are well made and decent for the money.  Fine for normal use, not good for games, so-so cameras.

[Guffman]

I had a look at some of them earlier this year. I saw a phone for 6,000 baht that looked ok for me. I checked the price online and found it for 4,000. Exactly the same model. I wouldn't go near these shops.

[Kenny202]

I have continually found this with these small phone shops, and only recently too. Always 20% higher price and second hand phones about new price that you can buy online. Add this to the fact you would have little chance of them full filling any warranty and hence my post. Why would you?

 

I ended up buying my phone from Big C. Was an Oppo, clearance model but super high spec and reduced about 3000 baht. By the way, be careful of phones having little real storage but boasting up to 256gb memory card expansion. I know many phones now, Samsung for one will accept a large memory card but it is only good as storage, when you move files or pics there yourself. The phone wont use it as internal memory or storage for apps etc. Apparently the use of a memory card this way is slow and apt to failure. If you need a large storage area it is much better if it is built into the phone

[PAWNEESE]

Last year .. my 3 year old expensive (20k) Samsung smart phone went faulty. The ON/OFF switch went faulty. Well out of warranty ... of course.

 

I could not power it up.  

 

I had many photos on it so needed it fixed rather than purchase a new one. The official Samsung repair place near the Town Hall, had it 3 days (they needed to send it or get the part from Bangkok) and fitted a new switch and charged me ..... 54 baht. 

 

A pleasant surprise ... I was expecting a thousand or 2.  Samsung phones for me for forseeable future.. as I was well impressed with that. Virtually free.

 

Im a bit worried some of my "artistic" photos were copied though.????.  

[PAWNEESE]

7 minutes ago, PAWNEESE said:

 

 

[wn78]

On 11/17/2020 at 7:36 PM, CrunchWrapSupreme said:

Then she says to me, "They go with customers." Bow chicka bow. Extra communication services. Making those connections. Selecting the correct USB port. Ok I'll stop now.

Seriously?  Those shop ladies double as freelancers?  Giving you a service to charge phone and discharge something else all in the same session.

Seems like this topic should be moved to Farang Pub forum now 555.