Help The Farang Or Thai?

[brubo1]

The other point I think is being missed is this:

Do you think that the person physically selling the merchandise actually owns the stall? Do you think that he pockets the cash and goes home smiling and rubbing his hands? Of course not!

His boss is going to expect a certain return on the stock sold. The reason why we get things cheaper as Thai speakers is only because the guy fresh off the plane will be paying more...

Thai price, Thai-speaking Farang Price, English-speaking Farang price, Farang straight-off-the-plane price... All different, but all average out to a working profit margin for the guy that OWNS the stall - the guy that WORKS on the stall's instructions are simple: get the best price you can for any given item...

Capitalist Economics that make the world work

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think you are quite right with what you're saying here. Was it you that said "I must be living in Fairy Land"? I'm not living in Fairy Land - I just wish I could!

[Heng]

In my experience, it's more often than not that the person who is running the stall is also the owner of the business. Naturally the space itself is not his and he is likely paying rent. The rent structure, especially in malls or open air markets, is often multi-tiered but not the business ownership itself. Like at the new Chatuchak mall being built, stalls of varying sizes are around 1.X million Baht for 20 years (kind of a lease, but you pay all at once and don't pay anything again until your 20 years is up). What we usually do with these though is not use them ourselves, but rent them out to others in blocks of 1-5 years. These renters may rent these out to your avg. end user retail seller. At the end of 20 years when it's super popular and it's full of vendors and customers... it may cost us another X-X0 million per stall to purchase another 20 year "lease."

Street rent is often unofficial, doesn't go to the city, and if anything is paid, it's paid to the owner of the closest property.

Due to principle-agent issues... you'll rarely see a situation like the OP is talking about (the stall seller who is not really the business owner).

Edited November 23, 2005 by Heng

[Neeranam]

Last night I saw an American sounding elderly guy pay 200 baht each for pirate DVDs. I waited til he had bought them and decided to tell him the real price - he said " boy, even if they were 300 I'd buy them, what's $5?" - tosser.

[Maigo6]

Last night I saw an American sounding elderly guy pay 200 baht each for pirate DVDs. I waited til he had bought them and decided to tell him the real price - he said " boy, even if they were 300 I'd buy them, what's $5?" - tosser.

lol, good story, did he then jump into his 4WD and zoom off into the sunset with his 18 year old honey by his side, leaving you in a spray of gravel and dust ?

hahah...............

[bkkmadness]

Last night I saw an American sounding elderly guy pay 200 baht each for pirate DVDs. I waited til he had bought them and decided to tell him the real price - he said " boy, even if they were 300 I'd buy them, what's $5?" - tosser.

lol, good story, did he then jump into his 4WD and zoom off into the sunset with his 18 year old honey by his side, leaving you in a spray of gravel and dust ?

hahah...............

[Beavis and Butthead]

Last night I saw an American sounding elderly guy pay 200 baht each for pirate DVDs. I waited til he had bought them and decided to tell him the real price - he said " boy, even if they were 300 I'd buy them, what's $5?" - tosser.

No he's no tosser, he's probably a millionaire who never worries about a couple of bucks. You are jealous and envious, that's all

[bkkmadness]

Exactly right Beavis. This guy is probably over on holiday, plenty of cash, and haggling is more for fun that a neccesity, so what if he's happy to pay 300 baht, why get so upset about it? It can only be jealousy.

Perhaps the guy realises that the Thais are a lot poorer than him so he was happy to pay a little extra, help the guy out, this being a poor country and all and him being a rich farang on holiday here. Giving a little something back and all that. Yeah, what a tosser.

And why exactly did you go over to him and tell him he paid too much? I expect because you wanted to make him feel a little stupid, but I guess he made you look a bit stupid when he said that 2.5 Dollars isn't an amount of money he worries about.

[Beavis and Butthead]

LOL, good one BKK Madness

[ourmanflint]

where else in the world would you all support the home nation exploiting visitors in such a gross and greedy way?? I can't believe that attitude of some people here, yes it's OK to make money! Of course , but to perpetuate this greed in Thailand is surely a mistake. I abhor the way some locals "live" off the stupidity of new visitors to their once great country.

I'm glad there are parts of the world where we would not tolerate this sort of thing, and for every stupid farang they get, they will go looking for 10 more.

It spoils Thailand in my opinion, this used to be such a nice place.

[Totster]

where else in the world would you all support the home nation exploiting visitors in such a gross and greedy way?? I can't believe that attitude of some people here, yes it's OK to make money! Of course , but to perpetuate this greed in Thailand is surely a mistake. I abhor the way some locals "live" off the stupidity of new visitors to their once great country.

I'm glad there are parts of the world where we would not tolerate this sort of thing, and for every stupid farang they get, they will go looking for 10 more.

It spoils Thailand in my opinion, this used to be such a nice place.

Are you saying it's different in other countries..? My experience is that traders will exploit tourists everywhere.

totster

[ourmanflint]

exploit yes... but to such a huge degree no!! I don't think so... nowhere else is there such disregard for visitors

[Thaddeus]

exploit yes... but to such a huge degree no!! I don't think so... nowhere else is there such disregard for visitors

I haven't been there for a number of years so it may have cleaned up its act now, but Las Americas in Tenerife used to be much the same.

[Couthy]

The Farang has the deck stacked against him so there's no point.

Rubbish - complete and utter rubbish.

Grow up.

[poorfarang]

How much does a fake rolex cost anyways?

I walked by a watch stand the other day and was thinking id get my brother one as a novelty. They had low quality for 500 baht and decent looking quality ones for 1500. How low do they go on these things?

[sriracha john]

How much does a fake rolex cost anyways?

I walked by a watch stand the other day and was thinking id get my brother one as a novelty. They had low quality for 500 baht and decent looking quality ones for 1500. How low do they go on these things?

If your brother's vision isn't 20/20, I've seen Rodex watches for roi-gao-gao baht... B199

[poorfarang]

well those cheap ones are really flimsy.

Baht the 1500 baht one was pretty heavy and seemed to mean that it would last more then a few weeks of use.

[Sing_Sling]

where else in the world would you all support the home nation exploiting visitors in such a gross and greedy way?? I can't believe that attitude of some people here, yes it's OK to make money! Of course , but to perpetuate this greed in Thailand is surely a mistake. I abhor the way some locals "live" off the stupidity of new visitors to their once great country.

I'm glad there are parts of the world where we would not tolerate this sort of thing, and for every stupid farang they get, they will go looking for 10 more.

It spoils Thailand in my opinion, this used to be such a nice place.

I agree with ourmanflint, it has become absolutely ridiculous . . . as pathetic as the d!ckheads in Samui and Phuket hassling older tourists with their sales-gimmicks on land/house/vacation etc . . . and simply don't take 'no' for an answer, basically intimidating the oldies.

(even saw one pair, Brit and Austrian, go on for 10 minutes and all the targeted couple said was 'no, thanks. no, thanks etc . . '. The d!ckhead duo then sped off on their scooter berating the couple for wasting their time and telling them to get &lt;deleted&gt;@ked. Nice . . .

I've probably spent more time in Thailand and been coming here longer than most and it's easy to see the change in attitude on behalf of the Thais towards tourists going from a welcome to complete exploitation.

Would I sit idly by and let some shyster cheat Asian tourists at 'home' an feel comfortable about it? I would hope not . . . would you?

[Neeranam]

QUOTE(ourmanflint @ 2006-11-01 16:56:48)

where else in the world would you all support the home nation exploiting visitors in such a gross and greedy way?? I can't believe that attitude of some people here, yes it's OK to make money! Of course , but to perpetuate this greed in Thailand is surely a mistake. I abhor the way some locals "live" off the stupidity of new visitors to their once great country.

I'm glad there are parts of the world where we would not tolerate this sort of thing, and for every stupid farang they get, they will go looking for 10 more.

It spoils Thailand in my opinion, this used to be such a nice place.

I agree with ourmanflint, it has become absolutely ridiculous . . . as pathetic as the d!ckheads in Samui and Phuket hassling older tourists with their sales-gimmicks on land/house/vacation etc . . . and simply don't take 'no' for an answer, basically intimidating the oldies.

(even saw one pair, Brit and Austrian, go on for 10 minutes and all the targeted couple said was 'no, thanks. no, thanks etc . . '. The d!ckhead duo then sped off on their scooter berating the couple for wasting their time and telling them to get &lt;deleted&gt;@ked. Nice . . .

I've probably spent more time in Thailand and been coming here longer than most and it's easy to see the change in attitude on behalf of the Thais towards tourists going from a welcome to complete exploitation.

Would I sit idly by and let some shyster cheat Asian tourists at 'home' an feel comfortable about it? I would hope not . . . would you?

Agreed.

And why exactly did you go over to him and tell him he paid too much? I expect because you wanted to make him feel a little stupid, but I guess he made you look a bit stupid when he said that 2.5 Dollars isn't an amount of money he worries about.

Bkkmadness, are you happy to pay what the tourists pay? The guy was standing next to me and I certainly didn't want to make him feel stupid, why would he make me look stupid?

Are you saying that if someone pays 3 times the price or something they make the person paying the correct price look stupid? Very strange logic indeed.

Edited November 2, 2006 by Neeranam

[bluedragon]

I was eating outside an Italian restaurant under the Nana BTS, when my friend left and I started watching this seller sell Wolfgang and Helmut a watch.

Now Somchai asked these guys, who even I realised hadn't a bloody clue, for 1700 baht. Helmut says "no no, I give you 1500". Now he is an expert at the art of haggling and keeps on haggling and eventually gets to 1550. My first reaction was to say to Somchai, don't be so bloody greedy and stop taking pleasure in the fact that they are haggling to pay you 1000 baht more than you paid for it, which I said. he didn't really appreciate this, but who gives a f*** if you are making big money. Now, these guys have to give the police about 10,000 baht a day if they have a prime sight.

Still Somchai made about 5,000 baht profit in 1 hour.

NOw my question, who would you help if Wolfgang asked, "Excuse me, but what are these watches worth?" Would you reply -

"I don't know"

"1500 baht"

"500 baht'

If I knew about what they were worth, I would tell Wolfgang.. If in Thailand or the Phillippines or Korea or Japan. And I would expect someone to help me with information if I asked. If you know that someone is getting ripped off, and are asked, but don't say anything, then YOU are part of the problem... Regards, BD

[Buckwheat]

QUOTE(ourmanflint @ 2006-11-01 16:56:48)

where else in the world would you all support the home nation exploiting visitors in such a gross and greedy way?? I can't believe that attitude of some people here, yes it's OK to make money! Of course , but to perpetuate this greed in Thailand is surely a mistake. I abhor the way some locals "live" off the stupidity of new visitors to their once great country.

I'm glad there are parts of the world where we would not tolerate this sort of thing, and for every stupid farang they get, they will go looking for 10 more.

It spoils Thailand in my opinion, this used to be such a nice place.

I agree with ourmanflint, it has become absolutely ridiculous . . . as pathetic as the d!ckheads in Samui and Phuket hassling older tourists with their sales-gimmicks on land/house/vacation etc . . . and simply don't take 'no' for an answer, basically intimidating the oldies.

(even saw one pair, Brit and Austrian, go on for 10 minutes and all the targeted couple said was 'no, thanks. no, thanks etc . . '. The d!ckhead duo then sped off on their scooter berating the couple for wasting their time and telling them to get &lt;deleted&gt;@ked. Nice . . .

I've probably spent more time in Thailand and been coming here longer than most and it's easy to see the change in attitude on behalf of the Thais towards tourists going from a welcome to complete exploitation.

Would I sit idly by and let some shyster cheat Asian tourists at 'home' an feel comfortable about it? I would hope not . . . would you?

Agreed.

And why exactly did you go over to him and tell him he paid too much? I expect because you wanted to make him feel a little stupid, but I guess he made you look a bit stupid when he said that 2.5 Dollars isn't an amount of money he worries about.

Bkkmadness, are you happy to pay what the tourists pay? The guy was standing next to me and I certainly didn't want to make him feel stupid, why would he make me look stupid?

Are you saying that if someone pays 3 times the price or something they make the person paying the correct price look stupid? Very strange logic indeed.

You didn't answer Bkk's question as to why you went over to him and told him he paid too much.

Let's try multiple choice...

1) You didn't stop the sale before he paid too much because you would have gotten a pop in the eye from the vendor

2) You waited until the sale was completed so you could show him how "savvy" you are

3) You waited until the sale was complete in the hopes that he had some loose change he would give you

4) You wanted to finally associate with someone who didn't care about 100 baht

[farangsay]

A GF once bought me a watch on Bangla/Patong.

She said she paid 300b but a farang just in front of her

paid 1200b.

[Douggie Style]

I just play it how I see it on the day, in that particular transaction...most times this means do nothing.

[Totster]

I'm a big fan of something I once read..

" if you think you are getting a good deal.. then you are "

totster

[Jockstar]

I imagine you could get yourself into pretty hot water if you started telling a potential customer that they are being ripped off. Isn't there a saying here about never f***ing with another mans rice bowl?

At the end of the day the customer will decide if the item is worth the price quoted. If he buys it he obviously feels it is fine.

Hence I would say I dont know and go on my way.

I think thats a good answer. Unless i know somchai or the tourist. I'd shut my mouth.

[helicoptor]

exploit yes... but to such a huge degree no!! I don't think so... nowhere else is there such disregard for visitors

Obviously haven't been to Tunisia then....

they proper take the pee outta the tourists there - expect to pay 10 times the going rate - irrespective of what that is - what a shit hole. Any Tunisians inda house?

[Jockstar]

exploit yes... but to such a huge degree no!! I don't think so... nowhere else is there such disregard for visitors

Obviously haven't been to Tunisia then....

they proper take the pee outta the tourists there - expect to pay 10 times the going rate - irrespective of what that is - what a shit hole. Any Tunisians inda house?

Been there. Have to agree.

[Patex]

And why exactly did you go over to him and tell him he paid too much? I expect because you wanted to make him feel a little stupid, but I guess he made you look a bit stupid when he said that 2.5 Dollars isn't an amount of money he worries about.

Bkkmadness, are you happy to pay what the tourists pay? The guy was standing next to me and I certainly didn't want to make him feel stupid, why would he make me look stupid?

Are you saying that if someone pays 3 times the price or something they make the person paying the correct price look stupid? Very strange logic indeed.

You didn't answer Bkk's question as to why you went over to him and told him he paid too much.

Let's try multiple choice...

1) You didn't stop the sale before he paid too much because you would have gotten a pop in the eye from the vendor

2) You waited until the sale was completed so you could show him how "savvy" you are

3) You waited until the sale was complete in the hopes that he had some loose change he would give you

4) You wanted to finally associate with someone who didn't care about 100 baht

Buckwheat,

This is an Expat- forum, Expats are people who are working here and some of them are on Thai- wages; seeing the prices spoilt by tourists and pensioners makes a living for an Expat and his family not easier...

For your reduced reading- comprehension ability I marked some parts from the former posts red.

[Buckwheat]

Well then Professor...

Enlighten us as to how crowing about paying 200 baht vice 100 baht AFTER the sale is going to stop the vendor from selling his pirated wares at the same price again.

Please type slowly....I'm a slow reader

[dgoz]

I dont know whether I would butt into the middle of a business deal but I sure would try to tell anyone the real price if I had the chance.

One of the reasons we are in Thailand is because it is cheap. Why is it cheap? Because of the huge discrepancy in salaries that Thais earn compared to us.

If they start making big money,there goes our cheap paradise.

So, stop paying over the odds, stop others from paying over the odds, stop tipping everyone and stop splashing money on lady drinks etc.

Besides wasting your own money you are also driving up the prices in general.

I have plenty of money. But I really can't see any reason to give it to a lazy Thai.

Keep the prices cheap, the expectations low, and enjoy.

Edited November 2, 2006 by dgoz

[Thaddeus]

Well then Professor...

Enlighten us as to how crowing about paying 200 baht vice 100 baht AFTER the sale is going to stop the vendor from selling his pirated wares at the same price again.

Please type slowly....I'm a slow reader

Possibly so as not to create a 'situation' with the vendor but a quiet word with the buyer to be more careful next time.

What's the old saying ...... fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.