I had a few hours to kill in downtown Hat Yai recently, so I ended up walking around both Kimyoung and Santisuk markets. While it was good to see them still open and relatively busy compared to many other parts of the city, it really did strike me just how anachronistic it felt. Most of the goods up for sale are the same crappy junk foods and other consumer products that they have offered for decades. There are even shops still selling CDs and DVDs, as if Netflix and torrent websites had never come into existence...It just made me wonder how the place actually works, with so many vendors selling the same stuff...it even made me wonder if it might be a front for something else. 

 

The last concern I had was about fire safety, as both markets are obviously at risk of a major catastrophe similar to what happened at Supercheap in Phuket. Just wondering what others might think about these places, since they are at the very heart of the city.

 

Suffocating and hot too.

These places are a testament to what Thai shopping was 20- 30 yrs ago.

Btw...a lot of these biscuits, nuts, dried fruits and other oddities are difficult to impossible to find in supermarkets.

Malaysian imports mostly

 

Yeah, I had always assumed it was just being smuggled up via train...I actually saw them loading it up once about 20 years ago. I wonder why they have such a separate network for booze and cigarettes.

 

In the era of Lazada & Shopee then Santisuk is well past its sellby date, I've not been there in years and can think of no reason why I might ever need go there again.

 

Kimyong is different, it's somewhere the wife goes to find particular pastes and spices, especially before going home to visit family in Prachuap. Kimyong it seems sells many ingredients that are hard to find, or particularly treasured. I avoid the place, nothing that I need there, and I find it somewhat claustrophobic. 

 

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Edited March 21, 20233 yr by Stocky

5 hours ago, phuketsub said:

Yeah, I had always assumed it was just being smuggled up via train...I actually saw them loading it up once about 20 years ago. I wonder why they have such a separate network for booze and cigarettes.

 

They used to bring items into Padang Besar Thailand through the no man's land at the back of the old train station. One man would sit on the wall then pass it to motorbike riders who would race off through the rubber plantation which has gone also. Some unlikely items like onions and cooking oil.