Thai Commerce Ministry To Save Mom And Pop Stores

[webfact]

Commerce Ministry to save mom and pop stores

BANGKOK, 2 April 2013 (NNT)-The Commerce Ministry is trying to modernize mom and pop stores in its attempt to enable them to compete with foreign-owned supermarkets in Thailand.

According to Deputy Commerce Minister Nattawut Saikuea, the Department of Business Development is signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with relevant sectors to revive 400,000 local grocery stores across the country that are reportedly being forced out of business, as they can’t compete with foreign-owned convenient and department stores.

Parties to the MOU will include retailers, financial institutions, manufacturers, as well as the government and the private sectors.

The Deputy Commerce Minister said further that the move is aimed at modernizing those stores' appearances and assuring the availability of products in a bid to lure local customers away from supermarkets.

Several banks have expressed their interests in taking part in this project in order to help small shops. ATM machines will be located near the stores, while those in need of financial help will be able to seek loans from the banks.

A counter service system similar to convenient stores' will also be installed at those stores to provide bill payment services, added Mr. Nattawut.


-- NNT 2013-04-02

[EyesWideOpen]

Nice thought but it will not work. A small store with limited products in dusty boxes simply has no chance. The Thai consumer has spoken by voting with their feet and shopping at the Tesco / 7-11 stores. Saving the small stores would be like trying to save buggy whip manufacturers in the early 1900s.....

Side note: why are these big stores called " foreign owned" ??? They all must have majority Thai partners by law.. So really they are " Thai owned". Guess the word foreign thrown in there sounds more dramatic..

[thaicbr]

Nice thought but it will not work. A small store with limited products in dusty boxes simply has no chance. The Thai consumer has spoken by voting with their feet and shopping at the Tesco / 7-11 stores. Saving the small stores would be like trying to save buggy whip manufacturers in the early 1900s.....Side note: why are these big stores called " foreign owned" ??? They all must have majority Thai partners by law.. So really they are " Thai owned". Guess the word foreign thrown in there sounds more dramatic..

It always sounds good to the faithful that the ministry are going after the foreign devil.

Sent from my i-mobile i-STYLE Q6

[Soutpeel]

tablets for the masses - check

rice mountains - check

massive infrastructure redevelopment - check

kick out "foreign" owned business

populist clap trap

[Thai at Heart]

Foreign owned store where they buy their stock, while Thai owned 7-11 eats them up.

[singa-traz]

Who is really hurt by the Supermarkets? ... Suppliers! Supermarkets with their enormous buying power drive heavy competition and the suppliers have to drop their profit margin to ensure their products continue to be displayed on the shelves.

"Saving the Mom and Pop stores" ... 555 ... nice one.

[Rionoir]

Modernize? A good first step would be to get them SHELVES to put things on instead of stacking it on the dirty floor.

[ThaidDown]

The biggest competitors to the traditional 'mom and pop' shops are 7-11 and fresh mart, both CP, hardly a foreign company!, as well as the smaller Tescos.

When I first arrived here there were no Lotus, BigC, Tops etc only the local mom and pop stores, dingy dusty places that quickly became known by us foreigners as 'mai mee' stores.

I think some of them still have the same stock after more than 20 years and a lot deserve to be closed. I'm sure there is still a place for these small independent shops as they can now buy their stock at places like Makro and local wholesalers.

A couple of independents near to us seem to have an almost constant supply of customers, but they have bright shops with good displays. Some small shops still seem to be stuck in the 80's and, for whatever reason do not want to change.

[slapout]

What should be looked at is the parking for customers for these mom and pop stores, food stalls, whiskey shops, etc. The majority seem to be located where there is no foot path, in dwelling which doubles as a residense, thus customers park on the roadway, sometimes on both sides (if it is popular).

Does the Commerce ministry hope to collect tax from these family run businesses? Doubtful, so This would appear to be another vote getter. We have become a hub for/of Mou's presented and signed locally, nationally, and internationally, in the past few months. None seem to have produced any viable results, thus some of us view their mention as more hot air bs.

[KireB]

The best way to help mom and pop hops would be to have stricter alcohol rules or election days!

[kartman]

The really rural stores will survive old stock on the floor and all, the ones nearer city areas haven't got a chance unless they become franchised as for buying bulk from Makro i can go in them and purchase which i do very limited items otherwise it's Big C or Tesco's for singular item's cheaper that the Makro bulk price.

[rfukata]

"trying to modernize mom and pop stores in its attempt to enable them to compete in Thailand"

while modernizing the store appearance and inventories are encouraging, other issues such as modernizing

the brains or educating the mom/pop stores will be essential, especially bill payments.

[tingtongfarang]

The biggest competitors to the traditional 'mom and pop' shops are 7-11 and fresh mart, both CP, hardly a foreign company!, as well as the smaller Tescos.

When I first arrived here there were no Lotus, BigC, Tops etc only the local mom and pop stores, dingy dusty places that quickly became known by us foreigners as 'mai mee' stores.

I think some of them still have the same stock after more than 20 years and a lot deserve to be closed. I'm sure there is still a place for these small independent shops as they can now buy their stock at places like Makro and local wholesalers.

A couple of independents near to us seem to have an almost constant supply of customers, but they have bright shops with good displays. Some small shops still seem to be stuck in the 80's and, for whatever reason do not want to change.

Sounds like the shop directly across the road here, has 3-4 old chinese thai ladies, They turn the tv on at 5am and look disturbed if customers come, They have lots of shelvs but so full i wonder they dont come down but maybe the cobwebs hold them up, Mostly kids go there with a couple of baht in the hand and buy sweet stuff,

At time i go over and buy a couple of beers but i got tired of explaining that i dont need 2 plastic bags just to walk 12 meters and it takes them ages to get the bottles in the bags,

there is another shop along the road which is open 24 hours and sells beer 1 bht cheaper than 7/11, thier customer base seems to be 4 young thai guys on a table outside who sit and share 1 bottle of beer.

[CobraSnakeNecktie]

this could work IMO...

Okay Thai's are getting fatter and harder for them to walk far enough to Tesco etc.

Simultaneously the roads are jammed with first car buyers, deadly wrecks and without matching infrastructure growth.

Sending out more delivery trucks to small shops might be one way to cope with these trends that make me want to never get on the roads.

[harrycallahan]

They could start by openly displaying the prices of goods so that you aren't spinning the price wheel when you approach the counter.

[Pimay1]

They could start by openly displaying the prices of goods so that you aren't spinning the price wheel when you approach the counter.

In a lot of cases the price depends on if we go in to make a purchase or our gf/wife goes in to make the purchase. Therefore no price on the item.

Case in point. I went to a local shop to make some copies of documents. They charged me 3 Baht per copy. A couple of weeks later the old gf went to the same shop, made more copies...2 Baht per copy.

Edited April 2, 2013 by Pimay1

[tingtongfarang]

They could start by openly displaying the prices of goods so that you aren't spinning the price wheel when you approach the counter.

In a lot of cases the price depends on if we go in to make a purchase or our gf/wife goes in to make the purchase. Therefore no price on the item.

Checked that possibility across the road on a few occasions and it did,nt happen.

[manarak]

"foreign owned" is abusively used in this context, for an initiave that otherwise has good goals.

But the action won't be successful if one selling proposition is not met: mom & pop stores should be cheaper than supermarkets and 7-11/Tesco.

One way to achieve this is to free smaller shops (less than 5 staff) form most administrative burdens (no minimum wages, no overtime, no unions, loose sanitary standards, etc.) while strongly enforcing regulations in big shops and franchises.

Edited April 2, 2013 by manarak

[MESmith]

I live out in the sticks. Normally buy the beer at Makro. Once was out of beer, so sent the wife out to nearest M&P store to buy a couple of bottles of Heineken. She bought them at the new price as the tax had gone up the day before. Tasted like sh!t. Checked the date, about 9 months old!! So the old hag had bought them long time ago, but heard the price had gone up, so charged the new price for very old stock. I'm more careful now to make sure never out of stock at home

Edited April 2, 2013 by MESmith

[unanimosity]

Nice thought but it will not work. A small store with limited products in dusty boxes simply has no chance. The Thai consumer has spoken by voting with their feet and shopping at the Tesco / 7-11 stores. Saving the small stores would be like trying to save buggy whip manufacturers in the early 1900s.....

Side note: why are these big stores called " foreign owned" ??? They all must have majority Thai partners by law.. So really they are " Thai owned". Guess the word foreign thrown in there sounds more dramatic..

dramatic xenophobic.

[unanimosity]

Looks like a page from the Obama playbook, viz., people aren't capable of taking care of themselves so let's make them dependent on the government.

There is a reason national parks do not want you feeding the animals.

[Pimay1]

I live out in the sticks. Normally buy the beer at Makro. Once was out of beer, so sent the wife out to nearest M&P store to buy a couple of bottles of Heineken. She bought them at the new price as the tax had gone up the day before. Tasted like sh!t. Checked the date, about 9 months old!! So the old hag had bought them long time ago, but heard the price had gone up, so charged the new price for very old stock. I'm more careful now to make sure never out of stock at home

Good idea. I have a reminder on my phone and also on outlook. Sunday..BigC.. week supply Leo.

[Schuimpge]

The reason for these programs is very simple.

1. New MP or Head of Ministry start his job.

2. He need to be seen so he start a program for which he has a budget.

3. Program just starts to run, maybe even successfully, but the MP moves on to another post and another MP starts.

4. Since the new MP wants to be seen, of course the old program is abandoned because its not his idea and a new program starts..

We have a lot of contacts in the government permanent staff for our work. One of them explained us once how it works.

Waste of time and money, but nobody cares and it's in the budget anyway..

[ronthai]

Guess we farangs are the bad guys again.

Well got to blaim someone for all the Thai failures.

After I read the artical I wanted to write a lot more, but previous posters have already said it all.

I do use 1 mom/pop shop, but that is the one located inside my village area/compound, where I live.

Nice man reasonable English, but nothing for known as farang products, not even bread, incl. the bad thai bread useful for toast only.

But good to buy my water and beer for home and other standard household needs.

He also buys some other stuff especially for me, but the box (Pepsi Max 12 bottles), iScore red cigarettes (elsewhere only in 7/11)

so they are handy and even reasonable clean.

[prakhonchai nick]

400,.000 Mom and Pop shops? That's one shop for every 150 people (men women and children) Take away the majority who use the big supermarkets, + 7/11, Family Mart and Tesco Express, and it can be seen there are virtually no customers left.

[belg]

blame the farang supermarkets !!!

yeah, when you see them sell meat, hanging out in a glass box, no refrigeration, i really want to buy my meat & veggies there (NOOOOOOOOOT)

[bigbamboo]

They aren't there to compete with foreign owned supermarkets!

The best thing the government can do for Mom and Pop is to keep the restricted alcohol buying times in place or better still make them more ridiculous. They do wonders for afternoon sales!

[Pimay1]

blame the farang supermarkets !!!

yeah, when you see them sell meat, hanging out in a glass box, no refrigeration, i really want to buy my meat & veggies there (NOOOOOOOOOT)

Now, now flies have to eat too.

[ppmacready]

We have a Mom and Pop DIY shop on 3rd rd corner of Soi Lenky.

It states at the counter ''Nothing has a guarantee '' No Refunds!

So what type of idiot will buy anything electrical in that shop at inflated prices to Tesco Lotus?

Who remembers how rude staff were in Big C before Tesco Lotus appeared on the scene?

[khunken]

They aren't there to compete with foreign owned supermarkets!

The best thing the government can do for Mom and Pop is to keep the restricted alcohol buying times in place or better still make them more ridiculous. They do wonders for afternoon sales!

Correct. They are there, usually within walking distance, to cater for emergency supplies. They do however need to stay open late in order to compete with the nearest 7-11.