Opening Small It Shop In Wifes Village

[slim]

Being in I.T. all my life my wife thought it would be a good idea to build a small shop on spare land we have in her village as the village has nowhere where people can send/receive emails or have documents copied or where the kids can play on PC's and game stations etc.

The idea was to stock the shop with snacks and drinks and if it did ok we'd expand it.

We worked out what it would cost to build a standard 1 up 1 down store and fit it out then I went to our local shopping mall in Khon Kaen to price up pc's etc.

By chance we went to another store in Khon Kaen and asked the manageress who we knew if they could compete with the pc prices.

What she told us cut this idea off dead.

She said that with her working in an electronics store, she'd had the same idea and had set-up a small place in her local village. After successfully trading for a few weeks she was visited by the local police. They made it quite clear to her that if she wanted to "avoid trouble" then she'd better start greasing a few palms and this wasn't a one off payment - this was regular and frequent bungs.

In the end it became too much and she closed the business much to the despair of the village who had benefited from the internet availability.

Everyone who lives in Thailand is aware that corruption is endemic throughout - perhaps the scale of it at all levels may come as a surprise. Its a warning to all would be entrepreneurs who are considering or budgeting for similar ventures - you'd better factor in your protection money.

[Ajarn]

Most businesses get hit up for a monthly fee to the police. Many don't pay anything and have no problems...

[oldsalt]

I opened a small resort a few years ago now with a Thai friend and when we first opened the local police "offered" to set up a polic box on the property in return for a monthly fee. I think my Thai partner kept me in the dark regarding the subsequent pressure he received, but held out and said no. We had a few other hassles from them in the early days, but my partner eventually contacted the head honcho for the local police and all harassment ceased. I realise going to the man in charge does not always work in Thailand, but in this case it did, and without any consequences.

We are in a very remote location and a few lowly ranked cops obviously saw us as the first business in town that could provide them with a little extra cash.

[Ulysses G.]

I opened a small resort a few years ago now with a Thai friend and when we first opened the local police "offered" to set up a polic box on the property in return for a monthly fee.

That is common in Thailand and is a very inexpensive way to deter criminals as the police have to stop by and sign a document in the box every so often.

As long as you do everything legally and have the proper documents, you do not have pay anyone off - at least in Chiang Mai.

[gatorhead333]

if you are 100% legit which would mean as a farang u do not work there on premises, then for this type operation the cops would be delighted for 500 baht a month if anything.

If you have a wood factory sitting on several rai then a few thousand month is in order...maybe. so what you describe seems easy.

why on eath would you dream die with some lady telling you her stories? maybe she was doing something more than you plan,maybe the cops hated her guts for whatever reason.

last week i had a Thai woman telling me about two male ghost that came to her in the night talked with her ! she swore that it was true....

[slapout]

I think the lemming mentality comes into play. If the police/whoever can shake down 1 or 2 then the other businesses follow suit. I often wondered if those who profess to be paying initially may not be part of the scam.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

It helps if you're not doing anything (ANYTHING at all) illegal. For a computer/internet shop what are the odds that it's all legal software and that nobody, EVER, browses to a porn site.. Many seemingly legitimate businesses still break some law (incl. safety/fire regulations, environmental laws, etc, etc), and that opens them up to requests for money to make these issues go away. More often than not the fee to do this is much lower (not to mention easier) than being completely legal, and the resulting mess is what you see around you.

It does mean that occasionally a couple hundred customers die in a fire because people were happier to exchange a couple baht rather than do the right thing but hey, it wouldn't be Thailand otherwise, it'd be Sweden and we wouldn't want to be living in Sweden now would we.

[drfang]

I opened a small resort a few years ago now with a Thai friend and when we first opened the local police "offered" to set up a polic box on the property in return for a monthly fee.

That is common in Thailand and is a very inexpensive way to deter criminals as the police have to stop by and sign a document in the box every so often.

As long as you do everything legally and have the proper documents, you do not have pay anyone off - at least in Chiang Mai.

We have a little red box at the end of our tiny moobahn, only 9 houses. I think the fee is 500bt a month for the police to come by and sign a bit of paper. I am curious as to how this will deter criminals. Is the red box telling them that the police will actually come if called?

[Ulysses G.]

I paid much less than that a few years ago, but criminals would mostly prefer not to rob places that the police visit on a regular basis.

[soic]

One problem may be the computer games for the kids. Thailand has been cracking down on that; they've been trying to get the kids away from the computers. My sister-in-law had purchased a bunch of computers, desks and all the peripherals to set up an internet gamers shop. Our family here are pretty tight with the police, so they weren't an issue. We were leasing her a location... she wound up dropping the idea like a hot potato. The Gov't and Education Ministers started grumbling immediately.

Try shoes from China Town in Bangkok... the ladies love them, you can buy them in bulk and you can turn a good baht on them. Just a thought.