Expanded Mexican Food Selection at Makro BKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Sometime back, I noticed a post on Sunrise Tacos' Facebook page with the Mexican food chain's owner meeting with representatives of the Makro grocery chain about expanding their supply of Mexican food-related products. I assumed, that was aimed at helping Sunrise with their supply chain.

Dunno if there's any connection not, but today during a visit to the Makro store on Narithiwas Rd near the Sathorn area, I noticed quite an expanded selection of Mexican food products compared to what they've typically stocked in the past -- including something I've never before found in a grocery store here before -- jars of sliced pickled jalpenos, Casa Fiesta 8 oz for 82 baht.

The overall selection isn't ideal, but altogether, it does cover a lot of ground. The available items as of today included:

--large, restaurant sized containers of refried beans, nachos cheese sauce and salsa.

--several packaged varieties of both hard-shell corn taco shells and flour tortilla/wraps, both regular and tomato flavor.

--individual/home sized jars of several varieties of salsas.

--seasoning packages for guacamole making and other items.

--and including my prized jalapeno jars!!!!

Unfortunately, I didn't see any home/individual sized cans of frijoles at Makro, although lately my local Villa market has been stocking an expanded selection of those, including several different brands and flavorings. But Villa's pricing of those is crazy high... I wanna say, close to 100 baht or more for regular 16 oz cans.

I don't know if other Makros around BKK and elsewhere are having the same Mexican food products selection. I suspect not. But at least the Narithiwas branch is heading in the right direction.

[Glock3am]

All of that Casa Fiesta range, including the jalapenos, has been available in Tops supermarkets for quite some time, years actually.

Maybe you just weren't looking hard enough!

It does sound like there are some extra items beyond their range available in Makro though, so cheers for the info!

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Where (what specific location) have you seen jalapeno's at Tops before?

I have a variety of Tops around my home in central BKK, and those stores stock little to nothing in the way of Mexican food products -- just some jarred salsas and Danitas tortilla chips.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

FWIW, Tops also has an online shopping service that I use from time to time. Of course, it doesn't cover all their store stock. But in light of your post, I thought I'd check it.

Using Tops shop online, searches for "Casa Fiesta" or "Casa" or "Fiesta" produce nothing. And a search for "salsa" produces only one product, a 300g jar of Doritos brand salsa for 145b.

A search for "tortilla" produced only one product -- the bags of plain Danitas tortilla chips.

And of course, a search for "jalapeno" also produces nothing. Same for the search term "taco".

[anotheruser]

I bought jalapeños at tops on sukhumvit before.

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

[Glock3am]

Where (what specific location) have you seen jalapeno's at Tops before?

I have a variety of Tops around my home in central BKK, and those stores stock little to nothing in the way of Mexican food products -- just some jarred salsas and Danitas tortilla chips.

Both Ladprao and Pinklao stores have the range I described. Jalapenos, cans of Queso, refried beans, etc.

Bear in mind, these are the big Tops stores (Ladprao is even bigger - it is one of the Gourmet branded stores), not the small ones with yellow signs. If they're the ones near you that's why they probably won't have these products.

I'll take a photo and post it in a few minutes as I'm at Ladprao now.

[Glock3am]

Here's the pic. It's a pretty decent range, even though you can see that there are a few other items missing/out of stock where they have spread out the queso cans to fill the empty spots. If I'm honest though, those jalapenos in a jar are not very good. Not a patch on the ones you get in Mexican restaurants here. They taste a little odd to me.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Thanks for the info.... The ones I tend to use are the yellow Tops markets...and those don't have any of that kind of selection.

But I'll check again next time I'm by the Gourmet market by Tops at CentralWorld.

As for the pricing at Tops, based on your photo, it looks like they're bordering on extortionate.

The jalapenos at Makro are selling for 82b vs. what looks like 109b at Tops.

And the 16 oz jars of Casa Fiesta medium chili salsa are going for 59b at Makro, vs. what looks like 172b at Tops.

Can't clearly read the pricing labels in the size of your Tops photo, but that's how the labels line up with the different jars.

Also, don't see any canned frijoles there...

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

BTW, although they aren't stocking this product at my local Makro right now, my local Villa in Sukhumvit is stocking this Casa Fiesta brand of pinto beans with jalapenos, 16 oz can for about 80 baht or so. Makes for a nice burrito filling addition. Also nice to see somehow the Casa Fiesta brand from the U.S. seeming to expand their presence in Thailand.

My local Foodland has several varieties of tortillas, and very few salsas, but nothing much beyond that.

My local Villa is much better, and these days are stocking both Rosarita and Bearitos brand canned frijoles... though not cheap at about $3 per can.

Meanwhile, Villa is the only local market I've seen selling the quite good El Sapo Thailand-produced brand of jarred salsas....

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Spurred by the various responses above, I did a detailed inspection on the way home last night of my local Tops and Villa markets in the Sukhumvit area, and found indeed that they both do now stock different varieties of jarred jalapenos, as well as better selections of Mexican food products from the last time I'd looked.

Tops' prices did seem to be particularly high, focusing on brands like Old El Paso and Chi-Chi's, where as Villa had a broader selection and lower prices for comparable items. But the best deal for jarred salsa I've found anywhere is the quite decent 16 oz. jars of Casa Fiesta Medium Chili Salsa for 59b at Makro, compared to 80+b at Villa and up to 215b for comparable products at Tops... Yikes!!!

Makro:

Villa:

Tops:

For jalapenos:

Makro had the 8 oz sliced variety from Casa Fiesta for 82b.

Villa had sliced peppers in the 16 oz size for 149b and whole and diced varieties in the 12 oz sizes at comparable prices (109b):

Tops had what I believe were smaller 8 oz jars (the same size as Makro) of whole jalapenos for the more expensive 109b price.

BTW, I should have added, while Villa is selling cans of Rosarita brand frijoles for 95b as I mentioned in the prior post, they're also selling similar varities of Bearitos brand frijoles for 79b per can.

[Glock3am]

Thanks for the info.... The ones I tend to use are the yellow Tops markets...and those don't have any of that kind of selection.

But I'll check again next time I'm by the Gourmet market by Tops at CentralWorld.

As for the pricing at Tops, based on your photo, it looks like they're bordering on extortionate.

The jalapenos at Makro are selling for 82b vs. what looks like 109b at Tops.

And the 16 oz jars of Casa Fiesta medium chili salsa are going for 59b at Makro, vs. what looks like 172b at Tops.

Can't clearly read the pricing labels in the size of your Tops photo, but that's how the labels line up with the different jars.

Also, don't see any canned frijoles there...

Yes, well Tops is never going to beat many places on price (excepting Villa) but comparing it to Makro, known for cheaper prices and wholesale bulk items, is no contest.

It sounds like there are a few different things at Makro too, so between the two of them a decent Mexican spread could be had I think!