Shopping The Big Box Stores in Mukdahan

[eng911]

As you can imagine, with my wife and I not being in Thailand for a few years, we've seen big changes. Here in Mukdahan they have all the big box stored now like Global House, Thai Watsadu, Marko, Big C etc.

We've been out shopping like crazy for my mother in-law. Here's my first impressions. Big C seems to be a good choice for everyday stuff. They have a great selection of stuff and the stores are super clean. The produce and grocery all seems very fresh. I realize some Thai people can't afford to shop here all the time but many do.

Thai Watsadu (SP?) was fun. It reminded me of Home Depot. We were looking at these hot water heaters for the shower. We ended up with 6 young Thai girls trying to explain to 6 of us the difference between different models. I just laughed and whispered to the wife that they had no clue. They all tried very hard.

The most shocking of all was Global House. This place may even be bigger than Home Depots back in Canada. They have everything for DIY that you can imagine and then some. The most shocking part of all was that EVERY aisle in the place had a minimum of three staff members standing doing nothing. I literally said hello to about 50 in the first few minutes. I even saw two girls sitting doing each others hair. One was getting braids. Their was so many staff standing around that it was nothing short of comical. If I owned that business I would not want to waste do much cash on over staffing.

I get the feeling that as some of these stores expand across the region supply is outstripping demand. I can see these big DIY stores doing well in Khon Kaen where things are booming and houses are going up everywhere. They may have arrived in Mukdahan before prosperity.

[kamalabob2]

I have asked Mr. Pichai in Buriram about the seemingly overstaffed situation at some Hardware Stores and Builders Merchants. He explained to me that manufactures pay the full salaries of these seemingly clueless sales team members. Big Box stores also hire actual students for lower wages so the student can obtain work experience. I looked for "spirit house lights" at the Surin Global House on Tuesday this week. I was the only customer in that huge well stocked store form 6:30pm to 7pm. They had LFD lights for a spirit house. Not LED lights, but a house brand LFD light. To my wife, LED lights or LFD lights it makes no difference for the spirit house.

At Ruangsangthai in Buriram located on Highway 2074 there are around 110 employees. Mr., Pichai the owner said that the man in the Nippon House Paint booth, the VRH plumbing fixture sales rep, the DeWALT Power Tools technician, the Zinsano Pressure Sprayer salesman, and the Pigeon Tools salesman are paid by the manufacturers. Mr, Pichai told me that those salesman are to help with any brand, are to NEVER speak poorly of another brand, and they have some product knowledge training. I feel they are on smart phones way too much but the Zinsano salesman seems sharp and he also seems to work on the welding machine booth and I have seen him help the owner of a Welpro MIg Welder get warranty repairs. I thought Global House had stunning tile displays, jacuzzi type spas made in China,and some amazing wood doors on display. The prices at Global House in Surin on some items were far higher than I had paid for the same name brand tool or same water heater in Buriram. Now what I have seen in Buriram is unique uses of porcelain tile that was to be installed at the "Lake Buriram" gazebo overlooking the Buriram Ready Mix Concrete batching plant by staff of a builders merchants store during a lunch break. I've been told that same sort of porcelain tile after a good hot water washing, can be used to roll pizza dough for the Buriram Home Show Pizza on Tuesday October 14th.

[eng911]

Well that makes things a little clearer. Perhaps a few of these extra employees are being paid by manufacturers or on a co-op deal from school.

We do the co-op in Canada too. Even my daughter has to do a four week co-op in order to graduate from college.

We must have similar tastes. The two things I spent the most time looking at were tile and those wooden doors. The doors in particular were very attractive. They would cost a fortune back home.

Tony