Thai Food Courts Will Be Asked To Keep Dishes From Getting More Expensive

[webfact]

Food courts will be asked to keep dishes from getting more expensive

BANGKOK, 7 May 2013 (NNT) – The Internal Trade Department will ask mall operators to keep prices of food court dishes from rising unreasonably; will also maintain the price of palm oil at 42 baht a bottle.

Department director-general Wibunlak Ruamrak has disclosed she will meet with the retailers this week to reemphasize her request for each food court shop to provide at least some dishes that cost between 30-35 baht, to help keep the cost of living from soaring.

This meeting with retailers is being called after Internal Trade Department officials found that some food court stalls have raised the price of dishes to 40 baht, from 35 baht. The stalls claim to have made the raise because they were affected by the cooking gas price.

Ms. Wibunlak said this was not a reasonable claim, but said the request for the price-capping will be on a voluntary, not mandatory, basis.

As for palm oil price, Ms. Wibunlak said the ceiling for retail price will be maintained at 42 baht for a 1-liter bottle. This is being done to prevent the price that palm growers receive from dropping even further, after it has dropped to 2.9 – 3.0 baht per kilogram.

With the drop in raw material cost, palm oil can practically be retailed at 35-39 baht per 1-liter bottle. However, some brands may incur advertising costs as additional expenses, making it difficult for them to cut their price, she noted.


-- NNT 2013-05-07

[MESmith]

So they'll be selling smaller portions

[yoshiwara]

The government getting a little bit itchy about headline inflation indicators. 35-40 baht for lunch? It will not be lost on office workers that their lunch has just gone up more than 10%. For a government trying to hold back the line such 'voluntary' encouragements just so much flapping in the wind and an unravelling of the myth that the PTP represents the 'poor'.

[scorecard]

So small vendors (not all but many with little resources and close to the survival line) are being asked / told to not raise their prices. And it is true that costs of raw materials and gas have gone up, some items jumped up quite a lot.

And are vendors of high range / high profit goods also being asked / told to not raise their prices? Not seen it / not likely

Is the government actively searching for / punishing big scale and small scale corruption? Not seen it / not likely.

Seems out of balance / unfair to me.

Edited May 7, 2013 by scorecard

[PoodMaiDai]

Unless of course they sell to farang.

[carvets]

Patongs Jungceylon food court on Phuket, nothing under 100 baht unless you want a bowl of rice.

[rubl]

In Bangkok you'll see lots of office workers eating a 30 - 35 Baht lunch following which they'll spent 80++ Baht on a coffee latte with sirop, cream, choco and other stuff. On the screens of the BRT I watched advertisements from 7/11+Oishi showing the convenience of buying sandwiches rather than queuing for some traditional pork barbecue sticks.

Are we talking about the same Thailand here?

[saltandpepper]

Portion will get smaller, or the food will be terrible. I went last Saturday to Big C next to Central Bangna.... It was the first time at that food court, and I had the worst food ever. It was anything but food. The wife and daughter could not eat, and we moved to Central food court.... It is more expensive but at least we could eat...

[Hockeybik]

Sure, price controls always work - I mean history is full of examples - look how well the rice program worked out... oh, yeah... well it will work this time, for sure. Don't ya think?

[rubl]

Newsflash:

In order to help food courts keep prices low the government will provide reduced price rice from it's 2007 and 2008 stock.

Tongue-in-cheeky

[soi41]

The very same government, that lured 1.4M people to buy cars, they don,t need/ can't afford, suddenly care, how much the same people pay for their noodles??

[slapout]

The government attempts at control of pork, chicken, egg, etc, prices are a great example of how effective they are.

Its just like the mandate for no Songkran riders in trucks, this was admitted to be a request by the National police chief and was virtually ignored nation wide.

The price control by the government has been a complete failure and by their own admission advertising cost, could and does provide an avenue to work around this. I guess CEO salary , tea money for police for placement of noodle stand, use of umbrella depending on weather, labor being Thai or illegal, could also enter into the pricing equation and if it is followed.

[mamypoko]

Would you please get to the part where you off yourselves. That or get some much needed medication. The food tastes bad, the gov't is sh.t, 'they' don't spend their money as 'I' would have them spend it. You make Archie Bunker look cheery. If you be farang and you live here, why not act like the guest that you are?

Just a thought

[rubl]

Would you please get to the part where you off yourselves. That or get some much needed medication. The food tastes bad, the gov't is sh.t, 'they' don't spend their money as 'I' would have them spend it. You make Archie Bunker look cheery. If you be farang and you live here, why not act like the guest that you are?

Just a thought

Ever been in a food court and eat something there here in Thailand that is?

First the government pledged rice and other commodity prices skyhigh, next a mandatory 300B/day minimum wage and now because of all of that those providing food in food courts need to keep prices low? Keeping prices low with all costs increasing means less quality or less quantity, probably both.

Not just foreigners, but normal Thai say so.

[NCFC]

Let the market decide the price. People will go where they want through freedom of choice.

[Ricardo]

Remember how well it worked, when TRT/Thaksin set up food-carts, to sell meals for 10B each ?

This is merely one more example, of a regularly-recurring story, which has minimal-effect in the real-world.

Of course it is anyway irrelevant, since all Thais are now rich, it is way past the six-month deadline !

Or was that just another white-lie or pre-election promise, which fooled the voters, but was never going to be delivered-on ?

[jonclark]

Would you please get to the part where you off yourselves. That or get some much needed medication. The food tastes bad, the gov't is sh.t, 'they' don't spend their money as 'I' would have them spend it. You make Archie Bunker look cheery. If you be farang and you live here, why not act like the guest that you are?

Just a thought

Would you please get to the part where you off yourselves. That or get some much needed medication. The food tastes bad, the gov't is sh.t, 'they' don't spend their money as 'I' would have them spend it. You make Archie Bunker look cheery. If you be farang and you live here, why not act like the guest that you are?

Just a thought

Perhaps if the people representing the hosts weren't so bad, the guest wouldn't be complaining so much.

And before you launch into a go home if you don't like it. Consider this, maybe its in the hosts interest to change, rather than asking the guest to leave, especially with ASEAN around the corner.

Just a thought.

[Payboy]

I do hope the price of cake remains unchanged.

[trainman34014]

how about asking Starbucks not to charge 145 Thai baht for a large frappachino?

Thailand the land of the rich get richer and the poor keep getting screw_ed

Then again it was mostly the poor that voted this Gov;t in

How about not visiting Starbucks, much more sensible and problem solved !

[bigbamboo]

If only the price of rice hadn't been forced up.

[squarethecircle]

In Bangkok you'll see lots of office workers eating a 30 - 35 Baht lunch following which they'll spent 80++ Baht on a coffee latte with sirop, cream, choco and other stuff. On the screens of the BRT I watched advertisements from 7/11+Oishi showing the convenience of buying sandwiches rather than queuing for some traditional pork barbecue sticks.

Are we talking about the same Thailand here?

It's the "hourglass effect", like in China a secretary who makes $500 a month will spend $800 on a purse but count pennies in trying to save on smaller items. The money spent on the latte is for the "face", actually the little stalls that serve 35-40 baht lattes are better coffee IMO but don't have the name brand, which is what they're paying for with the expensive (but not higher quality) Starbucks/True Coffee drinks.

[Pib]

Why is the govt even talking about this? Why the govt's own inflation rate stats say inflation is only rising around 3% per year...why at that rate of inflation it would take a long time for a plate/bowl of food to rise significantly...like it would take around 5 years to increase from 30 baht to 35 baht. STOP...STOP....I forgot the article is talking reality in food price increases versus govt inflation stats...like the core inflation rate that excludes food and energy price increases which can be volatile and have tended to rise significantly faster than other products.

Prices on many menus have changed so many times over the last few years some menus look like the prices have been written over a dozen times...and it seem so often I say to the wife, "Wasn't this plate of food 5 baht cheaper last month?" Ok, time for someone from the Issan area to respond with the price on your bowl of noodles hasn't changed for years.

[ratcatcher]

Portion will get smaller, or the food will be terrible. I went last Saturday to Big C next to Central Bangna.... It was the first time at that food court, and I had the worst food ever. It was anything but food. The wife and daughter could not eat, and we moved to Central food court.... It is more expensive but at least we could eat...

Ya gets what ya pays for and that's always been the case.

However with the mountains of rice available, I would have thought the government would be encouraging double portions for the same price? As well as helping the average worker.

Well isn't that what PTP stands for? Patronize The Poor.

[jonclark]

Portion will get smaller, or the food will be terrible. I went last Saturday to Big C next to Central Bangna.... It was the first time at that food court, and I had the worst food ever. It was anything but food. The wife and daughter could not eat, and we moved to Central food court.... It is more expensive but at least we could eat...

Ya gets what ya pays for and that's always been the case.

However with the mountains of rice available, I would have thought the government would be encouraging double portions for the same price? As well as helping the average worker.

Well isn't that what PTP stands for? Patronize The Poor.

What do you mean mountains or rice!!!!

Hasn't it all been sold under G2G deals?? Surely you jest with such an insinuation that flies in the face of the official party line.

Careful what you say or the Ministry of Technology will send the boyz round for a cozy chat, can't have you discrediting the party, and the PM with such libelous statements.

[lee b]

Yeah like they are really expensive now !

[JetsetBkk]

The stalls claim to have made the raise because they were affected by the cooking gas price.

???

Is this the same cooking gas that I now pay 320 baht for, that was 300 baht about 10 years ago?

[Morakot]

Fantasy economics, governmental bodies instructing retailers.

[scorecard]

The very same government, that lured 1.4M people to buy cars, they don,t need/ can't afford, suddenly care, how much the same people pay for their noodles??

And poor vendors should now help those first car buyers who can't afford the monthly car payments.

[MaxYakov]

FWIW, It appears to be the 'Department of Internal Trade' (DIT) under the Ministry of Commerce:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Commerce_%28Thailand%29

[Songhua]

We know we've just increased the minimum wage and that stock costs, freight & even rental will increase as a result. But if you wouldn't mind keeping your own prices at the same level ..... thanks.