Why Are You Even Here? The Surprising Attitudes of Some Expats in Thailand

[napalm]

We are thinking of presenting some of our imported food items to Villa Market. They told me that they have walk-in interviews with potential sellers a couple of times a week but gave no further information about commissions, amount of stock needed etc. etc., only, "just show up here and we'll talk to you about it". Has anyone been to such a walk-in interview and can tell me how it works ? Also, any information on good/bad things to do business with Villa Market...much appreciated. We tried a similar deal with 7-11, but they were far too gready for it to work. Thanks ! :jap:

[steelepulse]

Member DonBattles has sold them stuff. He's a sponsor for the Phuket and Chiang Rai forums.

[xcream]

I spoke to them on the phone and decided to not visit them at that time, the information was not forthcoming. They want you to turn up with all your samples etc but are not prepared to give you an appointment, also said that even if I turn up there is no guarantee that I will be seen.

Big C on the other hand agreed to a fixed meeting, and then decided to treat me like something they had trodden in on the way to work, to say the guys attitude stank would be an understatement, anyway the upshot of the Big C one was that we would have to pay 100,000 Baht to become a seller there, then for the first flavour of our product we would have to pay another 100,000 Baht, followed by 50,000 Baht for each following flavour, and since we have over 30 flavours this would be rather expensive, added to this that they do not do deliveries for you either to their stores, there is no central warehouse that you can deliver to for onward delivery. He did however say we can supply our product, they sell it, we make no money until the initial payments had been completed to Big C. On another note I seem to remember the Big C mark up was around 25%. You also have no guarantee where your product would be placed in the store.

If you do manage to get to Villa it would be great to hear your experience and costs involved etc.

[thaimate]

Straying off the subject,regarding big c ,why anyone shops there is a mystery ,the one here in Pattaya is not up to much and we very very rarely ever even go in there much less shop.

[napalm]

Member DonBattles has sold them stuff. He's a sponsor for the Phuket and Chiang Rai forums.

Thanks Steelepulse, I'll get in touch with Don.

[napalm]

If you do manage to get to Villa it would be great to hear your experience and costs involved etc.

Thanks xcream, I'll PM you if we find out more about this.

[napalm]

Member DonBattles has sold them stuff. He's a sponsor for the Phuket and Chiang Rai forums.

I mailed him through his web site, but no reply (I'm pretty used to not getting replies in Thailand, but that's another thread )