Is Villa Market A Ripoff ?

[diddums]

Recently ....Mangoes at 195 a kilo.....I can buy them where I live for 50/60b a kilo for the same type....others even less.

Grapes were 280 a kilo.....in tesco here they range from 80/180b a kilo.

Bananas 125 a bunch......I buy here for 30/60b a bunch.....some 10b on a good day.

Huge ripoff.

[Kitsune]

Touching, Diddums is discovering the world ...

[candypants]

if you had your answer, why pose the topic as a question?

Are some of the things that can be purchased a villa and nowhere else well worth buying?

in my opinion yes

Edited April 9, 2013 by candypants

[Jingthing]

Yes in general their prices on fresh fruit are a total ripoff. But not the prices on all of their items. You have to shop in different markets to get all that you want at better prices. Markets like Villa hope you do not!

Edited April 9, 2013 by Jingthing

[Takeo]

Pointless

You have basically just said it is a rip off and why it is so. I don't shop there, especially for fresh fruit in a country with fresh fruit available in abundance. But thank you for your 3 examples of why I should not change my habbit

[Jingthing]

I am very happy to have a Villa Market in town. I shop there for a limited number of items. Some I can't get anywhere else. Some because when I am there anyway and the price is OK as a convenience. It would be shocking and horrible if that was the ONLY option though.

[phuturatica]

I buy my fruit and veg from more local places, however home foreign food comforts I buy at Villa. Yes, it's more expensive but it's imported so what do you expect? I have always found the fruit and veg in Villa to be expensive though.

[CMTourist]

Its a shop that specialises in imported goods for foreigners.

Its expensive, but that doesn't make it a ripoff.

Some are willing to pay for the convenience. Others will make trips to different markets to buy different things at cheaper prices.

I like that it exists but I'm in the camp that only buys things that I can't get elsewhere there

[Jingthing]

Well its a matter of semantics. I don't see how you don't call their fresh fruit prices a rip off. That doesn't mean the entire market is a rip off.

[guzzi850m2]

Exactly, Villa don't have a large selection of fruits and veggies and the prices are high.

They however have many other special things I want so I buy them there sometimes.

[besth]

The only reason to buy some of their fruit/fresh products is if you are there to buy other things that can't be found elsewhere (and they don't overcharge too much on those IMO) and you want to save the time and petrol to go buy the fresh ones somewhere else, but I would think they count on that. I would call it more a marketing strategy than a rip off.

[Jingthing]

The only reason to buy some of their fruit/fresh products is if you are there to buy other things that can't be found elsewhere (and they don't overcharge too much on those IMO) and you want to save the time and petrol to go buy the fresh ones somewhere else, but I would think they count on that. I would call it more a marketing strategy than a rip off.

Indeed. Their marketing strategy is to rip you off on their fruit if you value your time over your money (or are just ignorant of prices). These prices aren't nominally higher than standard prices at groceries (not even talking open air markets) they are MASSIVELY higher. All grocery stores play this game to some degree. The fresh fruit price game at Villa is an EXTREME example, and yes I still call it a rip off. But whatever.

Edited April 9, 2013 by Jingthing

[besth]

The only reason to buy some of their fruit/fresh products is if you are there to buy other things that can't be found elsewhere (and they don't overcharge too much on those IMO) and you want to save the time and petrol to go buy the fresh ones somewhere else, but I would think they count on that. I would call it more a marketing strategy than a rip off.

Indeed. Their marketing strategy is to rip you off on their fruit if you value your time over your money (or are just ignorant of prices). These prices aren't nominally higher than standard prices at groceries (not even talking open air markets) they are MASSIVELY higher. All grocery stores play this game to some degree. The fresh fruit price game at Villa is an EXTREME example, and yes I still call it a rip off. But whatever.

Here I go on a simple comment at best, a losing dialectic battle, by siege and exhaustion at worst

EXTREME mark ups at Villa, where few people seem to go to buy in bulk, translate into between 30 to 120 Baht usually, in my case.

Leaving Villa and straight back home instead of going somewhere else, Big C Central for example, where fresh product is cheaper (not necessarily better), adds about 30/40 minutes on my shopping time. Not a big deal. It also adds petrol money. I'd say about 80 Baht? but probably would be told buy a new car, which wouldn't really make it cheaper. I could also use Baht Buses, then, the extra cost from one place to another would only be between 20 and 40 Baht. The extra time probably over 1 hour.

Total savings from being EXTREMELY overcharged for a few products at Villa when I go, from time to time, to buy things I can't get anywhere else, still worth it to me.

Each to his own preferences as always

[DP25]

A lot of the produce at Villa is expensive because it is imported or organic. There is a small segment of the foreign market that will basically refuse to eat anything from Thailand, and prefers that all of their fruit and vegetables comes from a foreign country, or at least from a specialty organic supplier if it has to be from Thailand. They would never consider buying fruit on the street, so Villa is filling that niche.

There is also a section of the market that is simply unaware that the produce prices in Villa are high because they have never been anywhere else. Others will also pay the prices even knowing they are rip offs because Villa is the only place to get certain items they need and it would cost time and money traveling to another market.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

A lot of the grocery prices for farang items in Villa are comparable, more or less, to what you'd pay for those same items, if you can find them available, at the variety of other farang oriented grocery stores around town, or at least stores that stock any of those same farang type products.

I do notice that Villa's whole fruit prices are especially high compared to other places. But their refrigerated/cut fruit prices for things like jack fruit, pappaya, pineapple, etc are pretty much in line with other stores. I think generally their vegetable and fresh meat prices may be somewhat higher too, but not by any large margin compared to places like the Gourmet Market and higher level Tops stores. And that may be in part because of the sourcing issue DP25 mentions above.

But for other things like packaged and canned goods, I buy a lot of things at Villa either because they have things that other stores don't have or they actually have better prices on some things than other stores.

As Jing I think mentioned above, to shop well and contain your expenditures here, you really can't rely on one market. You've got to pick different things from different places based on both their pricing and product availability and product quality. Tesco, for example, certainly has lower fruit and veggie prices than Villa. But as a general rule, I won't buy fresh fruit and veggies from Tesco because their stock is often old and/or of poor quality.

[StreetCowboy]

If you want the convenience of doing all your shopping in one place, then if you don't go to villa you forego a lot. Some of us have other things to do than buy groceries.

SC

[kblaze]

@ OP

No, it isn't.

NEXT THREAD

[diddums]

I don't have other things to do.

[diddums]

@ OP

No, it isn't.

NEXT THREAD

yes it is.....

Mouldy crumpets at near 200b...

Vegemite priced higher than tops...

Steak at outlandish prices.....

Butternut pumpkin..<deleted>...(solly)....490b compared to my local royal project ones at 40b....

[StreetCowboy]

@ OP

No, it isn't.

NEXT THREAD

yes it is.....

Mouldy crumpets at near 200b...

Vegemite priced higher than tops...

Steak at outlandish prices.....

Butternut pumpkin..<deleted>...(solly)....490b compared to my local royal project ones at 40b....

So am I right in thinking that you had already formed a fixed opinion, and you only started the thread of with the sole purpose of starting a bickering match, or was there more to it than that? Did you also want to slag off Villa while pretending to be open-minded?

There really is no excuse for obscenity when discussing fruit and veg, although that joke about the effin' fish may be a different matter

SC

[frankold]

The fresh vegetables and fruit are a rip off and there almost gone off. I guess the reason for the later is because no one buys them ;-)

[kkerry]

I often wondered who buys the fruit and veg at Villa. Organic or not it isn't cheap but I imagine they know their customers or they wouldn't have been in business for so long. Whenever I shop there most of the customers are Thai which also makes me curious how they can sell such a range of imported cheeses also highly priced. Must be a lot more very well paid expats than I imagined in Thailand.

[h90]

A specialized small private owned shop is more expensive than the large supermarket chains which stock all the same products.

Now I am really surprised!

[diddums]

@ OP

No, it isn't.

NEXT THREAD

yes it is.....

Mouldy crumpets at near 200b...

Vegemite priced higher than tops...

Steak at outlandish prices.....

Butternut pumpkin..<deleted>...(solly)....490b compared to my local royal project ones at 40b....

So am I right in thinking that you had already formed a fixed opinion, and you only started the thread of with the sole purpose of starting a bickering match, or was there more to it than that? Did you also want to slag off Villa while pretending to be open-minded?

There really is no excuse for obscenity when discussing fruit and veg, although that joke about the effin' fish may be a different matter

SC

More to it than that.

I am not very open minded.

What about obscenities re fruit n veg in a porn movie ?...is that ok ?

[bonobo]

I shop at Villa regularly, and I plan on shopping more often as I am buying a home very close to one. I buy a specific brand of bread, several drinks, flank steak, a brand of hash browns, OreIda Tater Tots, pizza blanks, imported tomatoes, and a host of other things.

No, I don't buy grapes. But even so, those are the same price as at Tops or FreshMart. I do buy green peppers, cucumbers, and a few other items of produce if I am there, although I will also buy them at the market if some stall has them on hand.

I think calling VIlla a rip off is rather dramatic. On the whole, their prices are comparable with Tops and Freshmart, and their quality is much better than Big C or Tesco.

[kblaze]

"Rip-off" means a bad financial transaction.

Buying "more expensive" things at Villa is a choice. One is willingly buying their products with knowledge of the price beforehand. Now one may do that for whatever reason they fancy (convenience, quality, brand, etc) and be perfectly fine with the more expensive price. If one isn't fine with it, they shouldn't shop there. The fact that there are at least 10 Villa markets around Bangkok tells me that there is indeed a market being catered to. Why would they shop there if it is a "rip-off", aka engaging in "bad financial transactions"? Its business. Villa has a niche market it caters to.

Let me put it this way; Would you say Mercedes Benz dealerships in Thailand are rip-offs because they charge 2 or 3 times what a dealer in the West would? No, because there is a market here willing to pay that price. Villa is the same thing.

[Jingthing]

No rip off is charging double or triple for the SAME THING you can get down the street. It's not rocket science, dudes.

[ExpatOilWorker]

Some products are actually cheaper at Villa than at Big C.

[Jingthing]

Some products are actually cheaper at Villa than at Big C.

Agreed. We are talking about their fresh THAI produce. It's rip off priced. There isn't any ambiguity about it. Of course if you know it is rip off priced and you buy it anyway, you have made a free will choice -- to be ripped off. I support that right!

[StreetCowboy]

Some products are actually cheaper at Villa than at Big C.

Agreed. We are talking about their fresh THAI produce. It's rip off priced. There isn't any ambiguity about it. Of course if you know it is rip off priced and you buy it anyway, you have made a free will choice -- to be ripped off. I support that right!

"rip-off" suggests an element of deceit of cheating. I don't see that at Villa.

SC