Can we still afford to shop at Thai supermarkets?

[webfact]

 

by Michael Bridge

During the pandemic, many of us working saw automatic reductions in our salaries.

Also, retirees have seen their monthly pensions shrink as the Baht starts to get stronger.

So, looking at the monthly overheads buying food and petrol has started to get expensive.

Personally, when I first moved to Thailand the rate of exchange was great and you did not need to worry about your monthly overheads.

Used to the bright lights of western supermarkets, like many expats I headed out to the big flashy supermarkets in Bangkok and Pattaya.

Going shopping in many of these fancy supermarkets has changed, as you now tend to look very closely at the prices and shop around.

Of course, the supermarkets will use the cost of importing as a reason.

 

However, I think it is mostly due to greed by sellers to increase prices because they think all foreigners are wealthy. How wrong can they be?

 

Up by 20%

 

I would say my personal food shop has gone up around 20% in the last six months, especially if I stick to the expat-type style supermarkets.

Fruit and vegetables seem to be excessively marked up. 

For example, this week two medium-sized carrots were THB45 in a Pattaya supermarket and avocadoes THB90 each.

Market shopping

Venturing to the local market in Pattaya this morning, I managed to buy two similar carrots plus a cabbage for just THB15, plus two large avocados for only THB70.

Tomatoes were also cheap, so were fresh strawberries.

So now I tend to get up early to buy fresh fruit and vegetables from the local markets.

That said, I have to say with my western habits I do not think I will venture to these outside markets to buy my chicken, as the flies everywhere tend to put me off.

Assume though that more expats will be heading over to their local Macro to put on the plastic gloves to delve around for a juicy chicken breast or cut of pork.

I cannot do anything about the cost of filling up my car, however, I reckon my monthly fruit and vegetable bill will hopefully go down.

Are you managing to find local markets that are not only enjoyable, but good for your wallet too?

 

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[pomchop]

"I would say my personal food shop has gone up around 20% in the last six months, especially if I stick to the expat-type style supermarkets."

 

These expat markets selling western foods have always been premium priced....if u want western food maybe live in the west or if you MUST have it in Thailand be prepared to pay major premiums.  Never ceases to amaze me how many falangs move to Thailand and then try to eat/drink like they are back in their home country.

 

 

[Albert Zweistein]

Today I bought in Europe 500 grams medium size carrots at € 0.59 or 22 bht.

 

@ pompchop : are carrots western food ?

[RubbaJohnny]

Everywhere insufficient income has a variety of solutions

 

1 Extra hours or better paid hours. If fixed income you may be able to use capital for investments as passive income, or some sort of side hustle, half my neighbours are trading on Bitcon, Amway type door to door pre covid and now Shoppee or Lazada, no idea how much this generates but they are basically underemployed/unemployed wealthy housewives with working husbands, so they are not reliant on the success of such "ventures" work online , Rent a room on Air BnB .Cook in rather eat out are typical for many today,

 

Unpalatable but perhaps necessary for some who cannot  work more due to low skills, child care or fixed contracts is lower consumption, fewer holidays, no days off  or switch to cheaper alternatives , many people I know in my village spend barely 100 a day they have fresh organic veg , fish and grains/pulses. , Of course it may not be acceptable to keep ducks, geese, chickens in your Condo or tether a Buffalo in the Executive stye. I'd refrain from keeping swine if you host dinner parties.

 

 

Of course if you want imported/western food from Air con malls it'll cost obviously and have larger environmental footprint, local veg also puts income in the pockets of desperately poor people .

 

3 Perhaps move to a place that is cheaper to live less commute etc, most Thais don't have a car but a motorcycle , bicycle or flip flops.

Thailand is little cheaper than some places in Europe Serbia, Monetnegro, Portugal, or Colombia, Peru, Costa Rica,Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecaudor depending on your needs. From pre Covid vacation Indonesia , Vietnam seem better value,I  guess it depends on whether your income is only in Bahts ?

Other equation is time/money balance if you earn 5-10 times a local it makes sense to pay them to cook, garden, decorate , wash your can while you earn added value at International tariffs. 

 

Some TV people have transfers, pensions, dividends subsidies , welfare, allowances from parents , spouse or have inherited property so no rent etc. If it is a real worry do the dull spreadsheet look at all outgoings , often items running a vehicle, alcohol , tobacco eating out will be far more than any saving that can be made at the vegetable markets. My wife and daughter spend more on telephones than my mother in laws pension! I spend more on wine than all other spending combined but as Churchill said , I like it and I can afford it.

 

 May I suggest try a month as a pescatarian vegetarian as a vegan full or pat time , you may like it, Street market veg like all others need thorough rinsing for pesticides, but fwer imports.

 

I hope you have sufficient for pension, health care emergency repatriation, because if the price of carrots are a concern it may be  Bugs Bunny to time to bug out.

 

Good luck , and of course there s always price gouging and with fuel inflation everything is going to go up faster than income.

 

TVestites  are wise enough but never never get involved in Tontines, gaming/gambling or informal money lenders, the scourge of LOS. There are endless pyramid scams everywhere but they keep recurring with a new twist. Cosmetics, gadgets, or just well disguised Ponzi run from even inside well known Banks. If it looks to good to be true it is.

 

After the roaring success of my $5 tobacco tin as $3000 bomb detectors I am reporpoising Sardine cans into a submarine as the tender ones  only looks at the size "bung" not whether it'll float your boat !! Free Sardines bring your own plastic bag and strong elastic bands or a "Submarine" sandwich.

 

A final advice based purely on personal experience , getting married is a very expensive way of getting free laundry .

 

[dj230]

20% mark-up is pretty inline with global inflation right now due to energy costs, I go to a "farang" supermarket and see the ridiculously priced produce / meat and surprisingly theres actually some people that buy it, I am guessing they're super rich or just not very bright in terms of managing their money. Things like $20-$30 USD for a kg of strawberries or grapes or cherries. 

 

Otherwise I found prices for groceries to be fairly similar in price to that in my home country, I prefer to order groceries/household products, much cheaper and you can use coupons. I usually only go to the grocery store to get fruit and it's not that expensive. 

 

I was told by local Thai friends that markets have cheaper produce/meat, but the food safety in Thailand isn't great, so I don't really trust it. 

[scubascuba3]

I'm buying less and less from Big C, their fruit and veg prices are falang price. Potatoes 55\kg Ratanakorn 30\kg, tomatoes about 20\kg, Big C as high as 90\kg a few weeks ago.

 

I've also stopped going to Buakhao market, falang price plus quality not good.

 

Expat stores are also stupid expensive, best avoided as much as possible. 80+ baht for baked beans or soup what mugs pay that and the out of date thing is annoying

[MrNatural]

It is not just a question of import/not import. My experience is that prices vary for everything in thailand. You can find a decent iced americano for 40-45B but most fancy shop will sell around 100 or more the same thai coffee. Also went to Esso to fill the car. They dont sell the basic B7 diesel they have at Ptt but some premium diesel 3B more expensive. So yes it takes time to look at all these things. But it is worth it. Even the happy hours and the promotions on foodpanda.

We talk about big differences in prices here

Specifically for the vegetables, even in the street there are some differences. One day Mrs Natural comes back from a day at the temple with loads of superfresh vegetables producers came to sell as there was a big party. Prices were down 30 to 50% compared to local market.

For the more rare items, I had noticed that I started to find more exotic veggies in my Makro in Bangkok. Fennel, zucchini, eggplants, jerusalem artichokes, romanesco, all at thai prices. But since the pandemic, it is not so frequent.

They still have avocados at 45B and cherries 3 times cheaper than villa market or gourmet mmall

 

[CharlieH]

Most noticeable I would say is the price to fill up the car.

The other thing I noticed was the difference in the number of people shopping at 5.30 pm!

Why you may ask at that time?

That's when all the "yellow labels" are made available from, these are  goods discounted down by 50%. for clearance due to date etc.

 

I don't like buying stuff like veggies from local farmers as there is no knowing what chemicals they have used on them..

 

[stigar]

My lady go to the marked early morning and buy what we need.Anyway sometimes we go to a mall for buying things and of course sometimes have a romantic meal in a restaurant at nightime.

Ur rigth that thailand get more expencive.The abnormal high thai bath makes it worse.

[ezzra]

Prices have gone up markedly everywhere as well as other western countries that i'm familiar with, as for buying cheap veg fruits and meat fish products only at fresh markets at 100% Thai neighbourhood or up country...

[greg71]

1 hour ago, CharlieH said:

Most noticeable I would say is the price to fill up the car.

The other thing I noticed was the difference in the number of people shopping at 5.30 pm!

Why you may ask at that time?

That's when all the "yellow labels" are made available from, these are  goods discounted down by 50%. for clearance due to date etc.

 

I don't like buying stuff like veggies from local farmers as there is no knowing what chemicals they have used on them..

 

And what makes you think the veges in the supermarket are any different from the local farmers / markets ?

[arick]

[arick]

I barely eat carrots but I keep some around for the horses. 

[jacko45k]

Just now, arick said:

I barely eat carrots but I keep some around for the horses. 

Then eat the horses?

[arick]

Just now, jacko45k said:

Then eat the horses?

That would get you in big trouble... 

[internationalism]

Time to convert car to lpg. 
Macro is my choice and my first stop there are discounted fruits and vegetables, less than half price. Also large 5kg bags for traders. 
I would stop at makro whenever passing by just to look for special offers, to top up my 2 large fridges. 
Frozen fruits are always cheaper than fresh and can keep them long. Same with 100% juices. So I need to get them only once a month. 
 

i do also buy food on lazada

[RichardColeman]

Depends - if they carry on discounting cheese from 164 baht a packet to 16 baht a packet, then, yes. Thing is, now my daughter has seen it , it will last maybe 3 days.

 

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

I would say my personal food shop has gone up around 20% in the last six months, especially if I stick to the expat-type style supermarkets.

There is a solution to that... an easy fix.

[Tom H]

Wrong headline.

Can we still afford to shop in FARANG supermarkets is the point.

 

ThaiVisa writing guys should increase their brain nitnoi:). No ploplem. Me I have bumbui which is expensive investment.????

[BE88]

4 hours ago, Albert Zweistein said:

Today I bought in Europe 500 grams medium size carrots at € 0.59 or 22 bht.

 

@ pompchop : are carrots western food ?

True,  never eat before but eaten so many succulent carrots like now in Thailand

 

[vandeventer]

2 hours ago, dj230 said:

20% mark-up is pretty inline with global inflation right now due to energy costs, I go to a "farang" supermarket and see the ridiculously priced produce / meat and surprisingly theres actually some people that buy it, I am guessing they're super rich or just not very bright in terms of managing their money. Things like $20-$30 USD for a kg of strawberries or grapes or cherries. 

 

Otherwise I found prices for groceries to be fairly similar in price to that in my home country, I prefer to order groceries/household products, much cheaper and you can use coupons. I usually only go to the grocery store to get fruit and it's not that expensive. 

 

I was told by local Thai friends that markets have cheaper produce/meat, but the food safety in Thailand isn't great, so I don't really trust it. 

We must be very lucky when the rest of the world are hurting so badly for food. Even in the USA people are stocking up on can food as their shelves are getting more and more empty. Count your blessings as things could get a lot worst than they are now.

[tonray]

"Can we still afford to shop at Thai supermarkets?"

 

Yes, we can.

[CM Dad]

2 hours ago, MrNatural said:

It is not just a question of import/not import. My experience is that prices vary for everything in thailand. You can find a decent iced americano for 40-45B but most fancy shop will sell around 100 or more the same thai coffee. Also went to Esso to fill the car. They dont sell the basic B7 diesel they have at Ptt but some premium diesel 3B more expensive. So yes it takes time to look at all these things. But it is worth it. Even the happy hours and the promotions on foodpanda.

We talk about big differences in prices here

Specifically for the vegetables, even in the street there are some differences. One day Mrs Natural comes back from a day at the temple with loads of superfresh vegetables producers came to sell as there was a big party. Prices were down 30 to 50% compared to local market.

For the more rare items, I had noticed that I started to find more exotic veggies in my Makro in Bangkok. Fennel, zucchini, eggplants, jerusalem artichokes, romanesco, all at thai prices. But since the pandemic, it is not so frequent.

They still have avocados at 45B and cherries 3 times cheaper than villa market or gourmet mmall

 

  I buy all of the fuel for my truck at Esso and I only buy diesel B7.  I am in Chiang Mai and all of the Esso stations have it.

[Tropposurfer]

Some products are expensive and attract the exorbitant import tariffs which Thailand so stupidly, and shortsightedly imposes.

The shortfall in tourists has forced vendors to up prices, strained supply chains haven't helped. Let's not think about opportunist wholesalers and international vendors jacking up their prices to retailers which flows to us as consumers.

A  bummer but that's just the way it is. I don't like paying crazy prices for good imported Aussie beef or lamb but there's little alternative (maybe become a vegetarian? ????) except Macro which sells good whole rumps, eye fillets etc.

I still remember the cost of a roast leg of lamb in Australia and while much more expensive there than it used to be, it's still a fraction of the price we pay here.

I bought $300 worth of tomahawk steaks last week at Central Food Hall in Bang Tao ... the only concession being they are delicious grass fed Aussie animals, fresh kill, fresh flown in, and delicious. But man that's twice the price in Aussie for same amount in weight.

But, we love our BBQ's every week, love a lamb roast too so I just pay for it.

Macro's good for lots of foods and the best prices we have found in LOS. 

We're lucky we grow a lot of our fruit and vegetables, have chooks on the estate area (we set up a henhouse and the maintenance staff help take care) so lots of delicious free range eggs, and have some great local fisherman connections for very fresh fish.

 

[Andycoops]

I've always bought in Thai open markets as there was no supermarket when I first landed in my corner of Isaan.

With the arrival of the 2 major chains I shop between the two sources.

I buy my farang foods to treat myself, usually online, and have them delivered as the nearest Tops is over 70kms away and the selection is limited.

[ThailandRyan]

Knowing how the western foods were marked up, I loaded a large suitcase up with food-stuffs that were non perishable and brought them home with me from the US this past week.  Now I have a stocked up pantry.  We do shop at Makro, and only go to the local Talad to buy the vegetables and fruit.  Fruit in the US is cheap such as strawberries, black berries, cherries, and so on....here the price is 3 to 4 times what I would pay back home, so instead we buy the large bag of frozen fruits and add them to our daily yogurt.....not the same but it still eats.  Shopping to fill the refrigerator and freezer upon our return after being gone for a mere 6 weeks saw an increase of about 15% to 20% on the same products when I compared the sales receipts.........time to reduce the types of foods we are used to if I want to stay on Budget.

[bdenner]

Having always had an unlimited food and beer budget I buy what I want where I want, rarely look at price. If I couldn't do that I wouldn't be able to sleep at night wondering where I went wrong during my working life!

[sirineou]

We mostly food shop at Macro, and at the morning market in Khon Kaen. 

Prices and selection in Lotu'sesssss (LOL we always make fun of the name change)  are crazy in relationship to the local markets. 

I went a few times to Tops and and once to Villa Market in Udon Thani and was not impressed. 

I have a meat grinder attachment to my kitchen-aid and we grind our own ground pork and beef,  There is little , if any, difference in  price between ground pork  and Pork shoulder , but in your own ground you can control the quality and amount of fat.

We bake out own Bread. really very easy to do, and very inexpensive. I refrigerate parts of it and when I am ready to eat, I throw it in the air fryer for a few minutes, It always comes out like freshly baked. The bread they sell at the suppermarkets is cr#p 

I also make my own sausages and freeze them .

Plenty of videos on videos on you tube on how to do any of these things.

I am now waiting for wife to wake up, to go to the morning market,  Today I am in the mood for Beets, 

sliced, and Boiled until soft, then served with olive oil vinegar, , Oregano , salt and Pepper, Love dipping my freshly baked or warmed bread in the juice.  Just remember that you ate beets the next day you go to the bathroom or you can have an alarming experience ????

 

 

[bkk6060]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Of course, the supermarkets will use the cost of importing as a reason.

 

However, I think it is mostly due to greed by sellers to increase prices because they think all foreigners are wealthy. How wrong can they be?

Seriously?    

I guess people that believe this is the only reason are very ignorant and uneducated, and are not keeping up international news regarding food/goods inflation that is occurring everywhere in the world.

[hotandsticky]

Just now, bdenner said:

Having always had an unlimited food and beer budget I buy what I want where I want, rarely look at price. If I couldn't do that I wouldn't be able to sleep at night wondering where I went wrong during my working life!

 

 

Have you considered the fact that you have no values?

 

I am in a similar position to you, but probably richer, but if I see a a pack of 5 Beng Beng in 7-11 for 26 Baht but singles priced at 5 Baht - I will buy 5 singles. That is because I am aware of pricing, I find it interesting to be aware of pricing and I will always look for value.