Villa Market At It Again!

[JacknDanny]

Frankly I think the majority of Villa Customers don’t even look at the pricing on items, much less their expiry date.

It became something of an “institution” among older Expats in Thailand from the early 70’s when it was established – it used to be the only place one could buy Heinz Baked Beans, Branston Pickle, Ribena etc. until the annual Ploenchit Fair for example .

I must confess that until fairly recently I was in that category, I never looked at labels, and just picked up what attracted my attention: That was until a few months ago when I noticed a note attached to one of the Tills in Villa Soi 33/1, which read, in Thai, “Mr. XXXX will send his Driver to give a cheque for this Bill today” …….. the Bill was in excess of Baht 300,000.- . (This was an individuals’ Account, not a Hotel, and the Statement was current – i.e. it was not an overdue account covering several months).

Despite the fact that I have been a customer for over 30 years I never had an Account at Villa so when I arrived home I checked my Credit Card statements and found that on average I was spending just under Baht 17,000.- a month there ……… without thinking whether or not I was getting value for money (much less worrying about whether or not the food was past its’ sell by date!).

The last few months have been a revelation, my monthly bill at Villa is now less than Baht 6,000.- a month and overall I guess I am saving in excess of Baht 2.000.- or so by doing the balance of my general shopping at Carrefour or Tops etc..

It’s quite amazing how certain habits become so engrained one never thinks to question the routine.

Patrick

I totally agree with these comments. It is far more expensive than say Foodland, and as someone else mentions, the fact that foodland is open 24hrs makes one less likely to find products that are not fresh. More importantly I have never found any price tags tampered with in Foodland!!

[JacknDanny]

didnt I read in any earlier thread about the VILLA scam that there is some kind of "Bangkok food police" ? why not report to them or report to the big THAI newspapers (maybe even reporting to BKK Post or The Nation would make sense....) worth a try, isnt it ?

thanks god I never have such problems when shopping at my beloved CARREFOUR

Yes Wolfie, it was me who introduced the last thread re out of date bacon. I did report it to the Dept of Health( or something similar) but the one thing that got a reaction from Villa was by putting it on this site and bringing it to the attention of the masses.

I think it is a good idea to send a message to both the Nation and Bangkok Post.

What infuriates me is that the last time when I complained to the store, I discovered that the blame wasnt some dumb kid who didnt know what he was doing, nor were the instructions to remove and replace the labels issued by the store manager!!! The instructions came from much higher, which if you go back to that topic and see the explanation from a representative of Villa, you will see that they are trying to blow smoke up peoples a**es.

Thankfully this site is read by many people and if it just stops one person from becoming ill by buying this out of date food, then thats great.

[Ulysses G.]

Trink is going to be really POed!

[AsiaWolfie]

anybody knows who is behind the VILLA chain ? the good thing with buying at Carrefour, Tesco is, they are a world-known chain and can't afford to do such nasty things....

never ever had I bad experience with Carrefour and Tesco (though I do most of my shopping at carrefour as the cater very well for Western European taste.....)

[Clipped]

lotus is notorious for mixing up goods and price tags (shelf) making you think a product is less than it really is...especially the seacon square location.

do you guys even know how a supermarket works? the majority of products are stocked by the importer/supplier...the importer pays a commission to the establishment and also a fee for shelf space in most cases...

the manager decides which products are selling and which ones dont, if there are an over abundance of products ,the low seller gets booted out, or has to pay tea money to the establishment to keep their non selling product on the shelf...hence the expired labels and the management turning a blind eye.

in most cases other than fresh products, you should be filing complaints towards the importer/supplier.

[JacknDanny]

lotus is notorious for mixing up goods and price tags (shelf) making you think a product is less than it really is...especially the seacon square location.

do you guys even know how a supermarket works? the majority of products are stocked by the importer/supplier...the importer pays a commission to the establishment and also a fee for shelf space in most cases...

the manager decides which products are selling and which ones dont, if there are an over abundance of products ,the low seller gets booted out, or has to pay tea money to the establishment to keep their non selling product on the shelf...hence the expired labels and the management turning a blind eye.

in most cases other than fresh products, you should be filing complaints towards the importer/supplier.

Its not the importer or exporter who changes the labels at Villa market.

And in the case of the last time I complained and caught them at it, the supplyers were Yorkies, who knew absolutely nothing about their practise.

I dont know how supermarkets work, but I do know that in this case it is the management of Villa who are trying it on!!

[Scott]

I have always tried to make sure I check labels on anything--been stung and gotten sick a few times. There are a few stores that have figured out that the easiest way to deal with things like this is to REDUCE the PRICE! I've watched people buy stuff that I know they wouldn't ordinarily buy because it was 3, 5 or 10 baht marked off!!

I am glad they got sprung and glad it got reported.