Foodland, especially Foodland Sukhumvit Soi 5 in Bangkok - why is it so empty?

[OneMoreFarang]

I like in lower Sukhumvit since decades. For all that time Foodland in Soi 5 was my main supermarket. I go there almost daily.

In Covid times the whole area, including Foodland, was almost empty. No surprise.

But even after Covid Foodland has maybe only 10% or 20% of the customers which it used to have - at least in my subjective experience.

Why?

As far as I know there are a few other supermarkets in the area, but IMHO nothing better than Foodland.

Now, with the fewer customers, they also have fewer service people in the shop. It's a slow downhill spiral.

Does anybody know what is going on or have a good idea for some reason(s)?

 

Took Lae Dee restaurant, within Foodland Soi 5, is also almost empty. 

Edited April 14, 2023 by OneMoreFarang
Added Bangkok in the title

[blackshadow]

is soi 5 pattaya klang???

this is the only road where I know foodland is situated

[Will B Good]

Lived just round the corner......often went for the early-bird breakfast...... after lockdown it was always 'empty'.

[marin]

My Foodland in Laksi has gone to hell. Looks like a cheap Thai supermarket. The aisles now have items on sale down the middle of them making shopping difficult. Many western items are no longer stocked. Their best personnel have left or been let go. Its really dropped off. I have shopped there since it opened 20 years ago and complained. I was shocked to get back a letter saying that is the way it is. Not a prime location and they are just going to let it go.  I hope that the one on Soi 5 is not following the same model. Yes it is really effecting Took lae Dee as well which has seen business tumble. 

[orchis]

57 minutes ago, blackshadow said:

is soi 5 pattaya klang???

this is the only road where I know foodland is situated

OP mentioning lower Sukhumvit, soi 5 in the Bangkok section might give you an inkling.

[stoner]

sorry but villa puts foodland to shame.

[Will B Good]

Just now, stoner said:

sorry but villa puts foodland to shame.

...and Tops.

[isaanistical]

Agree about Fooodland's downward spiral, and it's a shame. Can't be specific about soi 5 because I always used to avoid it as it was often full of people who would not buy pork, shall we say.

 

But elsewhere, Took Lae Dee simplified their menus during the panic and have not reverted. No fish 'n' chips, for example, while even the Thai food selection has halved.

And food prices jumped around 6-8 months ago, since when I have stopped using Foodland altogether. Their deli sections were good - and very good value, but prices of [locally-produced, don't forget] hams, etc just doubled overnight. They stopped selling bread too.

 

So all the reasons for using FL just evaporated. I joined Makro, which is not a like-for-like, but it fills some of the holes.

[blackshadow]

7 minutes ago, orchis said:

OP mentioning lower Sukhumvit, soi 5 in the Bangkok section might give you an inkling.

ok will have to do better at reading !!!!!!!!!

[OneMoreFarang]

17 minutes ago, blackshadow said:

is soi 5 pattaya klang???

this is the only road where I know foodland is situated

I posted this in the Bangkok forum, it's about Sukhumvit Soi 5 in Bangkok. 

[sqwakvfr]

First time in BKK was 17 years ago and I ended up at this Foodland and had lunch at the coffee shop and it was very good.  Too bad it is not mostly empty. 

[spidermike007]

My guess is that it caters mostly to foreigners. And tourism is way down, despite what the goons are saying. Also, tens of thousands of expats have abandoned Thailand. So, that could make a real difference. 

Edited April 14, 2023 by spidermike007

[OneMoreFarang]

10 minutes ago, stoner said:

sorry but villa puts foodland to shame.

Really?

 

IMHO Villa is often more expensive. If I want some special cheese, then it's more likely that I will get it in Villa and not in Foodland. But for many everyday items, including fresh meet, I prefer Foodland.

 

Normally I avoid TOPS, at least the one below Robinson in Sukhumvit Soi 17. My reason is their attitude to hygiene. They have often meet, like fresh chicken, presented in the open where people walk through. People and touch it, people can sneeze near or on it. No, I don't need that one.

And I saw that they too meet out of sealed packages to put it on the open pile to sell it. What a stupid idea! Just that alone is for me reason enough to avoid that place - at least for anything which needs cooling and/or hygiene. 

[OneMoreFarang]

14 minutes ago, isaanistical said:

They stopped selling bread too.

In Soi 5 they still sell bread. But they don't have the same bakery supplier anymore, I think they changed the supplier already before Covid. Now the bakery products are lower quality than before - at least according to my taste. 

[OneMoreFarang]

8 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

My guess is that it caters mostly to foreigners. And tourism is way down, despite what the goons are saying. Also, tens of thousands of expats have abandoned Thailand. So, that could make a real difference. 

I agree the expats and tourists are still not on the pre Covid level. But I don't think they are 80% down. And it seems Foodland business is way down. I wouldn't be surprised if they close it in that location because there are just not enough customers anymore. 

[marin]

22 minutes ago, stoner said:

sorry but villa puts foodland to shame.

Of course it does. Different market with different prices and customers. The topic was Foodland.

[transam]

3 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I agree the expats and tourists are still not on the pre Covid level. But I don't think they are 80% down. And it seems Foodland business is way down. I wouldn't be surprised if they close it in that location because there are just not enough customers anymore. 

Perhaps they stock "Bud Light".................????

[OneMoreFarang]

2 minutes ago, transam said:

Perhaps they stock "Bud Light".................????

Good one!

 

That reminds me of the alcohol promotion ladies in Foodland. I think they are still there.

I never understood the reason to have them there. Do people buy more bottles if some women with makeup stand near to the bottles and play with their mobile phones? Strange. 

[stoner]

10 minutes ago, marin said:

Of course it does. Different market with different prices and customers. The topic was Foodland.

well maybe foodland is sucking and villa is taking that business ? 

 

 

[stoner]

19 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Really?

 

IMHO Villa is often more expensive. If I want some special cheese, then it's more likely that I will get it in Villa and not in Foodland. But for many everyday items, including fresh meet, I prefer Foodland.

 

Normally I avoid TOPS, at least the one below Robinson in Sukhumvit Soi 17. My reason is their attitude to hygiene. They have often meet, like fresh chicken, presented in the open where people walk through. People and touch it, people can sneeze near or on it. No, I don't need that one.

And I saw that they too meet out of sealed packages to put it on the open pile to sell it. What a stupid idea! Just that alone is for me reason enough to avoid that place - at least for anything which needs cooling and/or hygiene. 

i find villa to be the closest thing to one stop shopping available. not taking prices into account as i don't care so much about that. 

[marin]

8 minutes ago, stoner said:

well maybe foodland is sucking and villa is taking that business ? 

 

Not at all. I am not going to explain it to you as you know. 

[transam]

14 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Good one!

 

That reminds me of the alcohol promotion ladies in Foodland. I think they are still there.

I never understood the reason to have them there. Do people buy more bottles if some women with makeup stand near to the bottles and play with their mobile phones? Strange. 

Think the beer companies make bundles to do their thing, and of course there will be those blokes wiv their smartphones, ogling, that will be attracted and sold a few beers, except "Bud Light", as the birds may get the wrong idea... ????

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Now, with the fewer customers, they also have fewer service people in the shop. It's a slow downhill spiral.

Does anybody know what is going on or have a good idea for some reason(s)?

 

Took Lae Dee restaurant, within Foodland Soi 5, is also almost empty. 

 

I live in the same area...and know Foodland Soi 5 well....

 

Possible reasons:

 

--tourism levels, while recovering, aren't back to what they were before... And those that are coming, the Chinese for example, probably aren't the type to be regular Foodland shoppers.

 

--along the way Foodland for some reason opened the newer and larger and nicer outlet at Sukhumvit Soi 16. Although it's a bit farther away from my home than Soi 5, it's definitely a nicer and better shopping experience than the smaller, low-ceiling, narrow aisled Soi 5 branch.

 

--I think COVID really accelerated the trend toward online grocery shopping and home delivery vs. in-store shopping. And for some unfathomable reason, unlike Tops and Lotus and Villa, last time I checked, Foodland's online website and mobile app are entirely in TH language with no EN option available. Which seems a very odd choice given their status as a kind of international market.

 

Edited April 14, 2023 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[mokwit]

FL/TLD have long been in decline. I wonder if the founder died or retired? what had been very stable with staff who had been there for literally decades, suddenly saw all kinds of changes. Staff were rotated between branches, long serving staff vanished to be replaced with rotating door student trainees. Nobody stays on that till unless they have 3 kids to support.

 

I think what happened is that once it became primarily Middle Eastern, non ME people stopped going there and ME tourist numbers have not recovered. I didn't like the way everything on display was handled, including unwrapped bread.

 

It seems the gentlemen who hang around outside the hotel opposite have made Tuuk Lae Dee their hangout. This seems to coincide with the recent increased fall off. It is not a good vibe that you have to walk past.

 

The pharmacy has closed.

 

 

[isaanistical]

26 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I agree the expats and tourists are still not on the pre Covid level. But I don't think they are 80% down. And it seems Foodland business is way down. I wouldn't be surprised if they close it in that location because there are just not enough customers anymore. 

Some FLs - eg Srinakarin - you'll hardly ever see farangs, even before the panic. A lot of middle-class Thais like(d) it because it was a cut above the Big Cs.

 

[isaanistical]

23 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

alcohol promotion ladies in Foodland. I think they are still there.

I never understood the reason to have them there.

They have them in Villa too, and BigC (eg Rama 4). Worse than useless and don't actually know anything about their products.

 

Nice to know no-one has even mentioned (Tesco) Lotututut, probably the biggest loser of the last few years and deservedly so. I don't know anyone who goes in there, locals included.

[transam]

Just now, isaanistical said:

They have them in Villa too, and BigC (eg Rama 4). Worse than useless and don't actually know anything about their products.

 

Nice to know no-one has even mentioned (Tesco) Lotututut, probably the biggest loser of the last few years and deservedly so. I don't know anyone who goes in there, locals included.

I don't think Tesco lost, they were paid a lot of money, in fact it was ....

 

10,600,000,000 US Dollars..................????

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

35 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Normally I avoid TOPS, at least the one below Robinson in Sukhumvit Soi 17.

IMHO, the Tops Central Food Hall at Chidlom BTS is the best farang oriented supermarket in the area... followed by the often pricier Gourmet Market branches at Siam Paragon or EmQuartier.

 

Central Chidlom Food Hall has a newer sister branch very nearby at CentralWorld. But it's harder to get to being up on the distant 7th floor of CW, and is laid out in an unfathomable way that makes it almost impossible to find any given thing there.

 

I also like Central because they have the local monopoly on UK brand Waitrose products in Thailand, which fill the need for a lot of western things I like. But Foodland and especially Villa also have a few things that you just can't find at Central and Gourmet markets,  especially in the category of Mexican food groceries.

 

Both Villa and Foodland stock the same U.S. brand of 1 lbs bagged dried pinto beans, which are an essential for me. I've never found the same product at either Central/Tops or Gourmet Market. And Villa stocks, unlike all the others, stocks the very good local brand of El Charro salsas and frozen Mexican entrees along with the also very good El Sapo brand of salsas.

 

Except for stocking pinto beans and some local brand tortillas, Foodland is horrible when it comes to any decent Mexican food grocery products. And Central/Tops and Gourmet Market are almost as lacking/bad.

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

46 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

In Soi 5 they still sell bread. But they don't have the same bakery supplier anymore, I think they changed the supplier already before Covid. Now the bakery products are lower quality than before - at least according to my taste. 

 

I believe, when I was checking with the local bakery staff there sometime back, they informed me in answer to my question that they were using palm oil in making their own croissants there.... That was the end of my Foodland bakery shopping.

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

38 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Good one!

 

That reminds me of the alcohol promotion ladies in Foodland. I think they are still there.

I never understood the reason to have them there. Do people buy more bottles if some women with makeup stand near to the bottles and play with their mobile phones? Strange. 

Villa at Soi 11 and Soi 33 sometimes had the same kind of staff...though I always thought the Foodland Soi 5 liquor gals were better looking... One in particular there, at least in the past, was quite the stunner....