Why When Thais See A Business Doing Well....?

[ukrules]

The mobile phone shop area in MBK springs to mind here.

[Travel2003]

Look at Sukhumvit Soi 8 for a good example of this. Instead of opening a business that might compliment one of the 8 massage places available in 300 meters, they open more massage and all sit there on the steps wondering why mai mee farang.

True.

Just like one single bar is not enough. Should be a few in same area, to attract many customers.

But when too many bars, some will go bust.

One, maybe not success story, is the case with the shops with used mobile phones for sale.

To compliment those shops, the new national sport "phone snatching" surfaced.

Thus it created a huge marked.

Both for those who wanted to sell (what they stole), and those who could only afford a used one, after their previous one was stolen.

lol

Edited December 14, 2010 by Travel2003

[Xangsamhua]

Not in Thailand.

I have seen some malls advertising empty restaurant space and sometimes within the advert it would say something like, "any type of restaurant except xxxx and xxxx." Apparently, the mall operators are trying to keep a good selection for the people to choose from.

TheWalkingMan

Central Plaza Rama 3 in Bangkok (not a "mega" mall) now has 12 Japanese restaurants!

[THAILIBAN]

Original thinking & SE Asia do not go hand in hand..

Isn't Thailand virtually known ( amongst other things ) as the Land of Copies anyway ??

Here was me thinking it was actually the hub of copies.

I am sure both of you have not been to China yet

[menostay]

In Asian cities in days gone by guilds controlled work and workers. A man worked in say leather in a shop in an area where other leather workers also worked. People lived in or close to their place of employment. There would be a leather workers temple there that you went to. A man's life revolved around his guild. As a result there were specialized areas in cities where you went to buy leather goods and each shop sold leather goods. The same was true for silver shops or medicine dispensers or paper shops or pottery makers or any other manufactured items.

That does not explain why economics 101 has not been taken in by more folks in a modern world...but it does help to understand why in certain areas the shops sell the same goods.

All you need is a plastic cat with a beckoning arm and the money keeps flowing in, right?

Cheers, MNS

[w11guy]

It's not just Thais. Farangs move to Thailand, go to a bar anf think "I know I'll open a bar". Doesn't work out so they close it. They then go for a meal in a restaurant and think "I know I'll open a restaurant".

It doesn't mater if you copy someone else as long as there are enough customers. In some UK cities there are 10 Indian restaurants in the same street and they all do well. Same with estate agents. Often it's not about copying but being where the action is. You want to buy a house, you go to estate agent street. You want to buy an Indian, you go to Indian restaurant street. If people already get massages in one area it makes sense to open there because you already know there will be massage customers in the area. They problem arises when you get too many shops. But open the same an do slightly better than the competition and you will win hands down.

It's the same the world over, but maybe they don't take competion into account so much here.