Thai government may lift afternoon alcohol sales ban to boost tourism

[lapamita]

ojhh since 1972 , i always if i want , i get a beer afternoons anywhere 8except since some years in supermarkets like 7/11) , a worthless and carzy law

i ven dont know the first 30 years i stay, that this law is as well for restaurants  , until today can direnk anywhere

maybe for the stonetables in front of 7/11 its a diffrent

[superal]

Whilst they are at it maybe consider giving exemptions to alcohol drinking for non Thais on special Buddha days and elections etc  . Very annoying for newly arrived tourists to find the bars closed . Some have told me they would think hard about a Thailand holiday in the future.

[stargrazer9889]

There was no good reason for this law. If workers or school kids were abusing

alcohal during the day, they should have been fired or expelled. The solution

was that simple, but TIT. I just learned to have water or soda until 5PM.

[newbee2022]

Thailand a hub of "booze"???

With prices of 700 Baht for a bottle of wine??? I doubt it.

I'm not sure any tourist will choose Thailand as the next holiday destination to try a "rice whisky" for 30 Baht.😳

[Bangkok Barry]

8 hours ago, flyingtlger said:

LOL, it might help the tourism industry a little but if it is lifted, it'll sure make all the local alcoholic happy!!!

Cheers!

 

Alcoholics can find a drink any time they want to, so it would make no difference to them. Actually, as the current ban is never enforced in pubs and only by big-name stores it would make no difference to anyone else either.

[dinsdale]

4 hours ago, scorecard said:

On the other hand the locals know where they can buy alcohol 24/7.

I'd like to know where. M&P shops aren't open 24/7 (there are expetions but few and far between). 711's etc only 10 hrs a day so where can alcohol be bought 24/7?

Edited February 5 by dinsdale

[HappyExpat57]

A quick search on the Google machine says Thailand is the only country with such a ridiculous ban.

[dinsdale]

9 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

 

Alcoholics can find a drink any time they want to, so it would make no difference to them. Actually, as the current ban is never enforced in pubs and only by big-name stores it would make no difference to anyone else either.

Feeling like a can of beer at 10:30 in the morning is a choice for most and has nothing to do with alcoholism (espicially if on a holiday). Not being able to do this at a 711 is insane. 

[orchidfan]

15 minutes ago, HappyExpat57 said:

A quick search on the Google machine says Thailand is the only country with such a ridiculous ban.

Both Singapore (sales only until 10.30pm) and Malaysia have various alcohol sales restrictions.

Different from Thailand but restrictions just the same.

[Seppius]

Would lift tax revenue as well

[Bangkok Barry]

19 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

Feeling like a can of beer at 10:30 in the morning is a choice for most and has nothing to do with alcoholism (espicially if on a holiday). Not being able to do this at a 711 is insane. 

 

I was responding to flyingtiger's reference to alcoholics.

it might help the tourism industry a little but if it is lifted, it'll sure make all the local alcoholic happy!!!

[dinsdale]

20 minutes ago, orchidfan said:

Both Singapore (sales only until 10.30pm) and Malaysia have various alcohol sales restrictions.

Different from Thailand but restrictions just the same.

And some countries no alcohol sales at all but this has nothing to do with the insane and without justification 12:00 am - 11:00 am and 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm prohibition (only in 7's, BigC, some pubs and restaurants etc) here. It is THE most stupid thing ever. Friends back home think I'm pulling their leg when I mention it. I'd settle for a midnight - 5:00 am ban but no restrictions is probably the way to go.

Edited February 5 by dinsdale

[AsiaCheese]

5 hours ago, scorecard said:

 

Actually it was introduced to stop high school boys buying alcohol and skipping school. 

 

And in view of that, it makes a lot of sense to abolish that regulation; anything to promote growth of the tourist industry [/sarcasm_off]

 

Like another poster already said: they keep finding more and more "things" to boost tourism, but most of those are at best short term solutions to the forever-growth "problem". How about doing away with double-pricing (oh no, there's an endless repeat), or modernizing public transport systems (or even: invent that in places like Pattaya...) and such?

[Almer]

3 hours ago, sandyf said:

Years ago it wasn't a problem in Thailand generally. I had been to Koh Chang a few times and then went back one year and all the normal  bars were shut in the afternoon, had to have a late breakfast in the Monkey bar? to get a beer. Bit the same in BKK, all the afternoon watering holes that I usually used dried up, but some may have escaped.

In Pattaya the only area I am aware of that closed down in the afternoon was Soi 6, but on saying that at new year I took a shortcut down there and there was some activity but nowhere near the old days. 

At the end of the day it's all about how blind is the eye. 

Short cut my ha ha ha

[scorecard]

48 minutes ago, AsiaCheese said:

 

And in view of that, it makes a lot of sense to abolish that regulation; anything to promote growth of the tourist industry [/sarcasm_off]

 

Like another poster already said: they keep finding more and more "things" to boost tourism, but most of those are at best short term solutions to the forever-growth "problem". How about doing away with double-pricing (oh no, there's an endless repeat), or modernizing public transport systems (or even: invent that in places like Pattaya...) and such?

 

And stop gatoeys praying on men on Pattaya Beach. (Remembering of course that Pattaya Beach is quite infamous for this scenario and men who walk around there early morning are asking for trouble.)

 

Also in this picture is that Gatoeys / lady boys who get caught by the police (who are not actively looking for them) get taken to Pattaya police station, fined 100Baht and walk out headed again for the late night men cruising the beach. 

 

Also in the picture again and again Indian men cruising this beach early morning wearing massive amount of gold necklaces etc. Perhaps they should be fined for the trouble they make.

 

What's the answer? Who knows? 

 

[AgMech Cowboy]

It's long overdue to be 'lifted'. It was a silly rule that Taksin implemented. It was stupid then and even more stupid to have stayed on the books this long.

Edited February 5 by AgMech Cowboy

[LukKrueng]

I don't drink so I really don't care about the hours\days of alcohol bans. However, I do find the bans reticules as anyone who wants to drink during those days\hours can simply buy in advance. And the idiotic reason for lifting the ban on order to increase tourism.... In my opinion any tourist that will decide to visit Thailand only because now s\he can buy alcohol between 2 and 5pm is not worthy of any consideration.

[HappyExpat57]

2 hours ago, dinsdale said:

And some countries no alcohol sales at all but this has nothing to do with the insane and without justification 12:00 am - 11:00 am and 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm prohibition (only in 7's, BigC, some pubs and restaurants etc) here. It is THE most stupid thing ever. Friends back home think I'm pulling their leg when I mention it. I'd settle for a midnight - 5:00 am ban but no restrictions is probably the way to go.

Washington State stops selling at 2:00 a.m.  Years ago I was playing regularly in a band, and we would make a mad dash to get to the store as we finished playing at 1:30, giving us 30 minutes to turn off our equipment and get to the closest store to beer up.  Being young and not too bright (as opposed to now being old and not too bright) the thought never occurred to us to stock up the fridge BEFORE the gig. City of Bremerton, R&H Market, was one of the busiest places on earth between 1:30 and 2:00 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays (or technically Sat & Sun).

[CanadaSam]

Thailand needs to be a 24/7 alcohol zone, to keep up with other activities.

[rwill]

several years ago, 8 or so, the big stores would sell between those hours but you had to buy at least 12 liters or so.  You could buy 15 of the big beer bottles.  Also restaurants used to not be affected by those hours but it seems they started cracking down on that too.

[GarryP]

The only people to suffer from this are the owners of mom and pop shops that are located near 7/11s. Their sales of alcohol will go down as they were making most of their sales to people buying during the off/ban hours. Those customers will mostly start relying on 7/11.      

[scottiejohn]

6 hours ago, dinsdale said:

711's etc only 10 hrs a day so where can alcohol be bought 24/7?

Where are you that 7/11's are only open 10hrs per day.  The 7/11's near me in CM are open 24/7!

[dinsdale]

13 minutes ago, scottiejohn said:

Where are you that 7/11's are only open 10hrs per day.  The 7/11's near me in CM are open 24/7!

I did not say 711's are open for 10 hours per day. Nobody on earth is going to say this. Alcohol sales, however, 11:00 am to 2:00 pm and 5:00 pm to 12:00 am IS 10 hours.

[dinsdale]

1 hour ago, GarryP said:

The only people to suffer from this are the owners of mom and pop shops that are located near 7/11s. Their sales of alcohol will go down as they were making most of their sales to people buying during the off/ban hours. Those customers will mostly start relying on 7/11.      

This is an assumption. My closest M&P sells beer cheaper than my closest 711. Distance between the two is around 25m. Hard to say definitely there will be a financial hit to the M&P shops. Of course some M&P are more expensive. 

Edited February 5 by dinsdale

[AndyAndyAndy]

I don't really care about 2pm and 5pm because there is million shops run by Thais that will sell you alcohol at any time.

 

What sucks is ban after midnight. Because all the small shops are already closed and only thing left opened is 7/11 which won't sell it. That sucks! 🫤

[dinsdale]

3 minutes ago, AndyAndyAndy said:

I don't really care about 2pm and 5pm because there is million shops run by Thais that will sell you alcohol at any time.

 

What sucks is ban after midnight. Because all the small shops are already closed and only thing left opened is 7/11 which won't sell it. That sucks! 🫤

As I've been saying every time this comes up now it's only the 2-5 pm being mentioned. Seems they are going to ignore the midnight to 11 prohibition. 

[AndyAndyAndy]

And I super hate these kind of laws. Goverment should be somebody who takes 20% of my income and build roads and hospitals. Not somebody who tells me when I can drink alcohol or what to think about holocaust. 😑

[scottiejohn]

7 hours ago, dinsdale said:

I'd like to know where. M&P shops aren't open 24/7 (there are expetions but few and far between). 711's etc only 10 hrs a day so where can alcohol be bought 24/7?

 

1 hour ago, dinsdale said:

I did not say 711's are open for 10 hours per day. Nobody on earth is going to say this. Alcohol sales, however, 11:00 am to 2:00 pm and 5:00 pm to 12:00 am IS 10 hours.

I suggest you re-read your fist post quoted above where it is implied that you are talking about opening hours regarding specifically 7/11's and NOT alcohol selling hours from 7/11's!   Why not mention Tesco or Big C etc?

[dinsdale]

17 minutes ago, scottiejohn said:

 

I suggest you re-read your fist post quoted above where it is implied that you are talking about opening hours regarding specifically 7/11's and NOT alcohol selling hours from 7/11's!   Why not mention Tesco or Big C etc?

Context. Context is about alcohol sales hrs and the poster says that locals know where to buy booze 24/7. My reply is in response to this. Sorry you misunderstood.

12 hours ago, scorecard said:

On the other hand the locals know where they can buy alcohol 24/7.

I'd like to know where. M&P shops aren't open 24/7 (there are expetions but few and far between). 711's etc only 10 hrs a day so where can alcohol be bought 24/7?

 

Again it's the context in which the 10 hrs a day is being used. Obviously it is in reference to the alcohol sales hours as this is what this thread is about. Sure I could have said that 711's etc. only sell alcohol for 10 hrs a day but in the context this is not necessary. 

Edited February 5 by dinsdale

[baansgr]

12 hours ago, hotchilli said:

Rubbish

It's true