Discounts in construction material and tool shops?

[OneMoreFarang]

Back "home" professionals with the correct documents (i.e. a house renovation company) get substantial discounts is some shops. I.e. if they buy tiles or tools they might get 30% discount.

Does something like this exist in Thailand?

Or to ask in a different way: If I want to buy i.e. tiles and tools for 50,000B in a shop like Boonthavorn, will I get the same price as if a Thai professional builder (company) would buy these things in the same shops? Or would the Thai builders buy the same things in some special wholesale shops for a better price?

 

 

[sometimewoodworker]

48 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Back "home" professionals with the correct documents (i.e. a house renovation company) get substantial discounts is some shops. I.e. if they buy tiles or tools they might get 30% discount.

Does something like this exist in Thailand?

Not anywhere near that much, but yes they get discounts.

 

48 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Or to ask in a different way: If I want to buy i.e. tiles and tools for 50,000B in a shop like Boonthavorn, will I get the same price as if a Thai professional builder (company) would buy these things in the same shops?

No. 50,000 Baht is way too little.

48 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

would the Thai builders buy the same things in some special wholesale shops for a better price?

Yes.

 

If you are patient and buy when there is some special situation you can get amazing prices. I got over 2 tons of tiles at ⅓rd to 1/10th of the retail after the floods 

[OneMoreFarang]

2 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

45 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

would the Thai builders buy the same things in some special wholesale shops for a better price?

Yes

Thanks.

Do you know any names of shops like that? Would a not professional builder, maybe a Thai person, be able to buy anything for the same good prices like the professionals in those shops? Or do those shops have no entrance for "normal" people?

[sometimewoodworker]

3 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Thanks.

Do you know any names of shops like that? Would a not professional builder, maybe a Thai person, be able to buy anything for the same good prices like the professionals in those shops? Or do those shops have no entrance for "normal" people?

It depends on what you want to buy as builders only use big box stores for little stuff, and no you won’t get the same prices as you don’t have accounts with them, need much more sales time, and are not buying several million Baht annually. Yes you will usually pay less than at BBS’s. However AFIK they are open to anyone, a Thai may well get a better deal.

[Moonlover]

Professional builders certainly do get discounts and if they 'steer' their clients to use particular outlets they also benefit.

 

When we renovated our old village home the builder was very keen for us to use Global House for materials and payment was sorted through the customer service desk rather than the usual check out. It didn't take me very long to figure out why.

 

[OneMoreFarang]

2 hours ago, Moonlover said:

Professional builders certainly do get discounts and if they 'steer' their clients to use particular outlets they also benefit.

 

When we renovated our old village home the builder was very keen for us to use Global House for materials and payment was sorted through the customer service desk rather than the usual check out. It didn't take me very long to figure out why.

I think if they get commissions for bringing customers that is fair enough - as long as the commissions are not added to the buyer's price. But there is obviously a problem if they get commission for brand A but not brand B etc.. 

[sometimewoodworker]

1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I think if they get commissions for bringing customers that is fair enough - as long as the commissions are not added to the buyer's price. But there is obviously a problem if they get commission for brand A but not brand B etc.. 

They are very likely to get more discount from brand A but not brand B, however that doesn’t necessarily mean that B is any better or cheaper than A. Of course it is also quite possible that B is both cheaper and better than A.
 

But none of this is in anyway different from the common sales tactics in stores pushing you towards a product that they want to sell for any number of reasons few if any are related to the best product for you. Luckily if you know what you want getting it is not too much problem.

[CLW]

The big home improvement stores hand out their member cards plus have several discount promotions with Thai credit card companies.

I would say a discount of 5 percent is easy to achieve. Plus this stores most likely have literally everything you need.

Local shops might give you also a discount but ususally not have everything or from low quality

[sometimewoodworker]

20 minutes ago, CLW said:

The big home improvement stores hand out their member cards plus have several discount promotions with Thai credit card companies.

I would say a discount of 5 percent is easy to achieve. Plus this stores most likely have literally everything you need.

Local shops might give you also a discount but ususally not have everything or from low quality

The problem with that point of view is that often specialist stores have prices that are quite a bit lower than the big multi item stores so comparison shopping will usually save money.

[SimpleMan555]

As stated above discounts are available and some local building supply shops work hard to compete with the big box stores.

 

Ex:   10cm Diamond

        AAC Block

        Globalhouse:  28b

        Local shop:    24b

 

Globalhouse also wanted 600b delivery, local shop free delivery.

 

This shop has also extended me a 30,000b line of credit, I can call and they deliver, or I can go to the shop.

I pay every two weeks.  Good for both of us 

Cheers

 

[Blue Muton]

You won't get the same discounts here as 'back home' because traders here don't have the same mark-ups. I've found small independents to be generally less expensive than the sheds.

 

I was introduced the English speaking owner of a hardware shop by our builder seven years ago and because we spent quite a bit there we always got discounts and to this day they usually knock something off the marked prices no matter how much or how little we're spending at the time. Sometimes they don't even charge for very small purchases.

[BritManToo]

1 hour ago, SimpleMan555 said:

Globalhouse also wanted 600b delivery, local shop free delivery.

HomePro give discounts for online orders and free delivery if you spend over 500bht.

[OneMoreFarang]

20 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

HomePro give discounts for online orders and free delivery if you spend over 500bht.

I am very suspicious about HomePro. A so called construction shop which is located in a very expensive part of the city is not where normal builders go shopping.

They must have huge margins to be able to afford that location.

[sometimewoodworker]

2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

HomePro give discounts for online orders and free delivery if you spend over 500bht.

The online discount was matched by the udon branch as well as the free delivery, so I am not sure that there is any significant benefit.

[Yellowtail]

6 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I am very suspicious about HomePro. A so called construction shop which is located in a very expensive part of the city is not where normal builders go shopping.

They must have huge margins to be able to afford that location.

Yes, that's why you never see any 7-11s downtown, oh wait...

 

It's not a construction shop, it is a home improvement center. A home improvement center in the center of a city with over 10 million people living in homes, and a lot of them in need of improvement. 

[eddysacc]

You could safe a little when using credit card promotions.

 

It is something like spend 250k get discount 6k.

 

I am building a house right now and also looking for ways to safe money.

 

Comparing the prices of shops could safe a bit.

 

Some products are cheaper online at lazada/shopee.