Anyone notice their favs disappearing from Villa Markets?

[shaurene]

I believe this was the reason quoted elsewhere regarding a lack of Kraft products, though it's a bit more recent than just 'post-coup' - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/02/21/labor-fight-at-west-coast-ports-comes-to-an-end-for-now/

I think Kraft is now Canadian. I can get all the imported stuff I want from Friendship stores, and the Mega Tesco's.

[shaurene]

Noticed that Tesco are running out of Brook baked beans. Was visiting immigration today so thought I would get a few cans at the nearby Tesco, one can left so now all Tesco for a 50 kick radius are out of stock.

You can get packs of 3 in Makro (Korat city). loads left, bought some myself.

There is a local Makro but never been sure quite how they work. Can I just walk in and buy? Do I need a card? Can I get a card? How much do I need to buy?

You can just walk in and buy what you want. You can go to the desk and ask for a card but you can buy without one.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I have noticed some American things, like Johnsonville Italian sausage have disappeared from Villa and Friendship in Pattaya, but as stated that probably has to do with shipping issues out of the west coast of the US. Those specialty items have been there for the "lowly farang" for years and will probably reappear soon.

Thanks for adding that... Johnsonville sausages... My local Villas used to stock tons of those, probably more than a half dozen different flavors.... Also used to have regular promotions on them...

Then the stock dwindled down. And now, the past few months, NONE! Entirely gone...

As was today, when I visited my local Villa, their entire range of Celestial Seasonings herbal teas... Again, they'd normally carry a half dozen or so different varieties of it, and have for years. Now... also all gone.

It gets to be a pretty long list of MIA products from the U.S. if you really start keeping track.

[HerbalEd]

Socking and re stocking of consumer's items and brands in Thailand over all has much to do with what

Thai people/consumers like rather than us, the lowly farangs, It's evident in just about any market

and supermarket around the country, I use to screech my head a lot wondering the same as the OP,

but after losing all/most my hair, I stooped to wonder and to question, it is what it is, if it's not there,

they don't have it....

I don't agree. Villa carries many products that are rarely purchased by Thais. I assume that's because they are very smart business people who see the value/profit in selling to the non-"lowly" farangs. For sure, they get a lot of my money because I purchase a lot of "farang food" there on a very regular basis.

[HerbalEd]

Being cynical I often think that supermarkets do not restock popular brands to force people into clearing the shelves of the less popular brands before they go life ex.

Try being logical ... it's much more productive than being cynical. What you propose is actually a great way to lose customers who'll go elsewhere.

[Amavel]

I too missed many items on my list this past shopping trip. The Cheeses and Refried Beans especially

[gudtymchuk]

Frijoles refritos and pickles and waffles are easy to make at home. No need to wait for them to be restocked. Cheaper than imported ones, too.

Frijoles and refried beans are made from pinto beans. Many years of living in Thailand I have yet to see on single pinto bean other than when Villa Market stocked the canned variety. So if you know of a place one can purchase dried pinto beans in bulk or even small packages please share.

[Shaunduhpostman]

That's bad news regarding those cheeses, I really like them as well. Easily the best value of any import cheese, great Provolone and Swiss slices. We don't have any of it ever anyway up here in Isaan, but when I visit Bangkok, those California cheeses are a staple.

The Aussie Brand Mainlander has good reasonable Swiss in 200 gram blocks for 170 baht or thereabouts. Seems to me I saw that brand in Villa as well. There are a few delis around in supermarkets and so on. I'd check those out, they may well have some reasonably priced substitutes. The supermarket in the top floor of Emporium has a cheese deli with quite a range, but more expensive.

For refries, if you have the time and energy, you can make good ones yourself from dried beans. Good refries are very tricky though and it takes hours of boiling. The hot weather here puts me off doing that anymore. They have some good ready made bean burritoes at Villa,6 to a pack or something like that, but of course you may not feel like a bean burrito sometimes.

Sounds like it is the dock strike this time, especially since someone wrote in saying there were similar shortages in Indonesia. Crossing my fingers.

[KarenBravo]

Geeta's Lime & Chilli chutney.

Was stocked just long enough to get me addicted.

Hasn't been in stock for months now.

I'm down to taking half-teaspoon portions from my very last jar.

[alanrchase]

Being cynical I often think that supermarkets do not restock popular brands to force people into clearing the shelves of the less popular brands before they go life ex.

Try being logical ... it's much more productive than being cynical. What you propose is actually a great way to lose customers who'll go elsewhere.

Agreed. Trouble was where I used to work as soon as someone suggested being logical the realists reminded them of where they were. Logic never came into play.

[Sealbash]

Frijoles refritos and pickles and waffles are easy to make at home. No need to wait for them to be restocked. Cheaper than imported ones, too.

Where can you find bumpy cucumbers for pickles? I have been trying for years. The cucumbers grown here do not make crispy pickles.

[SimonCC]

You are wrong, this is mainly due to the coup. The main reason it that before the coup, food importing companies could get certain lower volume items or items which were difficult to obtain import licenses for trough customs by knowing the right people or paying them under the table. Indeed, since the coup there has been a clean up at customs. Reason of long shortages can range from production issue with the manufacturers, importers who are waiting to consolidate containers or the process of applying for import licenses ( which can take several months) which has to be redone by the importer because the the stricter applications of the importing process by customs since the coup. And believe me that's the only right answer here as I am in this business in Thailand for over 10 years

[Sakeopete]

I hope they don't run out of microwave popcorn from the US.

[Sealbash]

I work for a large company which does business in Thailand. Any of the larger companies such as the food stores, do not take shortcuts on import or customs. The penalty on the UK or USA stock exchange is too great to take a chance on not importing with total transparency and within the legal framework.

[SimonCC]

Food stores do not import their own food in Thailand, food importing companies do. The exception was carrefour with their house brand. Macro (aka CP) uses mainly Siam Food Services, which they own. Villa market buys mainly from Food Gallery which is owned by the daughter in law of the owner of Villa market....

[Seligne2]

Frijoles refritos and pickles and waffles are easy to make at home. No need to wait for them to be restocked. Cheaper than imported ones, too.

Frijoles and refried beans are made from pinto beans. Many years of living in Thailand I have yet to see on single pinto bean other than when Villa Market stocked the canned variety. So if you know of a place one can purchase dried pinto beans in bulk or even small packages please share.

It may not help you, but Rimping Markets in Chiang Mai sell pintos in cans and dry (1kg). I'm a chili con carne lover and prefer dry beans. My problem is that I have never been able to find dry beans here that "cook up". I.e., even after soaking all night and cooking all day, they remain unappealingly crunchy.

[bkkjames]

I notice at villa in the snacks section they will have obscure brands of imported chips and the like from the US one month, then next month they are gone only to be replaced by another obscure brand. Like they get a whole bunch to try for free or something and move to the next ....?

[ricklev]

Frijoles refritos and pickles and waffles are easy to make at home. No need to wait for them to be restocked. Cheaper than imported ones, too.

Frijoles and refried beans are made from pinto beans. Many years of living in Thailand I have yet to see on single pinto bean other than when Villa Market stocked the canned variety. So if you know of a place one can purchase dried pinto beans in bulk or even small packages please share.

Tops and Central Market now almost always have dried pintos in both their house brand called My Choice and the Waitrose brand. They also have Casa Fiesta refried pintos. Always have them for the last five years or so.

In Bangkok anyway. Maybe not upcountry......

Edited April 21, 2015 by ricklev

[ricklev]

Frijoles refritos and pickles and waffles are easy to make at home. No need to wait for them to be restocked. Cheaper than imported ones, too.

Frijoles and refried beans are made from pinto beans. Many years of living in Thailand I have yet to see on single pinto bean other than when Villa Market stocked the canned variety. So if you know of a place one can purchase dried pinto beans in bulk or even small packages please share.

It may not help you, but Rimping Markets in Chiang Mai sell pintos in cans and dry (1kg). I'm a chili con carne lover and prefer dry beans. My problem is that I have never been able to find dry beans here that "cook up". I.e., even after soaking all night and cooking all day, they remain unappealingly crunchy.

This works everytime. Soak overnight. Drain and rinse. Cook in slow cooker on low for 8 hours or so. Soft every time, even with the old beans we get here.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Frijoles refritos and pickles and waffles are easy to make at home. No need to wait for them to be restocked. Cheaper than imported ones, too.

Frijoles and refried beans are made from pinto beans. Many years of living in Thailand I have yet to see on single pinto bean other than when Villa Market stocked the canned variety. So if you know of a place one can purchase dried pinto beans in bulk or even small packages please share.

At least in BKK, before the past year or so, canned frijoles were readily found at Villa Markets, including the Beariitos and Rosarita brands, and even some from the lesser known Casa Fiesta brand. As well as S&W canned chili beans, and related varieties.

Now in the past six months or so, all of those have disappeared from all the Villas I frequent in BKK.

However, much to my relief, for who knows what reason, both my local Villas and Foodlands are still stocking 16 oz bags of dry pinto beans imported from the U.S. under a brand name I've never heard of. They run about 60b per bag. At times, Villa has also stocked smaller bags of dry pinto beans under the McGarrett brand.

I can't recall if I've ever seen bulk dry pinto beans sold locally here, and I'm not even sure if they're grown in Thailand.

I do know, once in the past, I bought some bulk locally packaged kidney beans in a bag from Makro, took them home, and it turned out they were full of bugs. Last time buying my beans from Makro's supplies.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Frijoles refritos and pickles and waffles are easy to make at home. No need to wait for them to be restocked. Cheaper than imported ones, too.

Frijoles and refried beans are made from pinto beans. Many years of living in Thailand I have yet to see on single pinto bean other than when Villa Market stocked the canned variety. So if you know of a place one can purchase dried pinto beans in bulk or even small packages please share.

It may not help you, but Rimping Markets in Chiang Mai sell pintos in cans and dry (1kg). I'm a chili con carne lover and prefer dry beans. My problem is that I have never been able to find dry beans here that "cook up". I.e., even after soaking all night and cooking all day, they remain unappealingly crunchy.

This works everytime. Soak overnight. Drain and rinse. Cook in slow cooker on low for 8 hours or so. Soft every time, even with the old beans we get here.

ahh... glad you asked that. I too have been making my own version of frijoles at home, as well as chili con carne and waffles and other things, since the commercially produced supplies disappeared. But, I too was having difficulty getting the right texture, consistency of the pinto beans...

Until... I chanced upon RICE COOKER FRIJOLES!!!

Start with a 16 oz bag of dried beans, rinse, wash and drain.

Then put them into a regular electric rice cooker and cover generously with water, and bring to a boil, letting them boil 10 mins or so. Then, turn off and let sit overnight or a few hours (that part is the regular stove cooking recipe on the store-bought bags here, except for substituting the rice cooker).

Then, drain and rinse the beans again, and cover with fresh water and cook again in the rice cooker the same way you'd cook a fresh pot of rice.

Toward the end, when the water gets low, I usually add a jar of Mexican salsa along with a couple tablespoons of cumin, some garlic and whatever other seasonings you prefer.

Then stir and let that cook down more to whatever consistency you desire. The result is GREAT... and pretty easy to prepare.

PS - I will agree it is cheaper and actually tastes better, although it takes some time and at least some elements of a kitchen.

The pinto bean bags go for about 60b per bag, and end up making about 32 oz. of frijoles. Whereas the canned frijoles, 15 or 16 oz, were retailing for 80+b per can when they were available. So about 160b+ for the canned variety vs 60+b for the equivalent dried portion.

Edited April 21, 2015 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[tolsti]

Off topic, but my friend just came back from England and brought me 2X160 boxes of PG Tips teabags (fresh, not like the stale crap you get here). 320 teabags....I'm in heaven, only a fraction of the price too. I will now be the happiest chappy on TVF, maybe....

Marks and Spencers do boxes of 160 for 295thb... You get 4 foil tubes of 40 round bags in the red range. gold range is a few baht more but still very good tea.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

That's bad news regarding those cheeses, I really like them as well. Easily the best value of any import cheese, great Provolone and Swiss slices. We don't have any of it ever anyway up here in Isaan, but when I visit Bangkok, those California cheeses are a staple.

The Aussie Brand Mainlander has good reasonable Swiss in 200 gram blocks for 170 baht or thereabouts. Seems to me I saw that brand in Villa as well. There are a few delis around in supermarkets and so on. I'd check those out, they may well have some reasonably priced substitutes. The supermarket in the top floor of Emporium has a cheese deli with quite a range, but more expensive.

Here were the two varieties of California cheese that Villa used to stock....very reasonably priced and quite good, for about 130b for 8 oz. All disappeared now and the past few months.

This week when I was looking, Villas still had quite a decent stock of Tillamook cheeses at about 285-300b for 8 oz, and a few Kraft block cheeses for around 180b, but the Kraft stock was quite low. I'm guessing, they've sold out of the more reasonably priced stock first, and only the more expensive ones are remaining.

They did, however, have quite a lot of various kinds of bagged, shredded cheeses, like pizza toppings, taco toppings, etc.

Villa also used to stock a local Thai brand of cheese under the name Caroline. But those seem to have disappeared also, and I haven't seen them in a long time.

Edited April 21, 2015 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[sgtsabai]

Up here there is a large American ex-pat community, but it seems the American food supply is shrinking, at least in Tops. I haven't tried Villa in a couple of months, hate the parking there. I've given up on pinto beans, the "bean backbone" of real Mexican food. I get most of supplies for Northern New Mexico cooking, it ain't Tex-Mex brother, from New Mexico and I'm going to try planting some pinto beans. Now if this storm will just knock over those stinkin' banana trees the neighbor planted next to my wall my garden area might get some sun again. I've tried several times with real Hatch green chile, very unsuccessful. Chimayo started well. Snails got the best looking bunch overnight. Southern, not to hard but the Cajun, my original home area in Texass, is almost as hard to come by but can be done. Having a hard time finding corn meal again, can't fry fish properly without. Having a hard time finding Cayenne (red) pepper now also, have to have for Cajun. I need to give Makro a try and brave the Villa parking.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Off topic, but my friend just came back from England and brought me 2X160 boxes of PG Tips teabags (fresh, not like the stale crap you get here). 320 teabags....I'm in heaven, only a fraction of the price too. I will now be the happiest chappy on TVF, maybe....

Marks and Spencers do boxes of 160 for 295thb... You get 4 foil tubes of 40 round bags in the red range. gold range is a few baht more but still very good tea.

I saw quite a bit of PG Tips boxes in Villas in BKK these week, though not sure how fresh or not they may be.

Edited April 21, 2015 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Having a hard time finding corn meal again, can't fry fish properly without.

The Sathorn area Makro market in BKK in the past 6 months or so began stocking a line of frozen El Charro Mexican food products in 1 kg bags -- guacamole, corn meal, frijoles, -- and packages of their flour tortillas and pre-prepared small burritos.

Here's the corn meal they are stocking, and those are all locally produced here, so no supply problems, though seems a bit pricey.

BTW, that same Makro has also continued to stock the Casa Fiesta brand of the huge 115 oz canned varieties of sliced jalapenos (372b) and frijoles with lard (259b).

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Frijoles refritos and pickles and waffles are easy to make at home. No need to wait for them to be restocked. Cheaper than imported ones, too.

Where can you find bumpy cucumbers for pickles? I have been trying for years. The cucumbers grown here do not make crispy pickles.

I don't know anything about home pickle making.

But I do know this -- the locally produced brand of sliced pickles in jars -- The Gastro Savory Pickles -- sold by Villa are Horrible and Tasteless and Mushy.... They taste like a soggy soft cucumber, rather than a real pickle.

Whoever is producing those ought to be reported to the BIB and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law!

[gudtymchuk]

Frijoles refritos and pickles and waffles are easy to make at home. No need to wait for them to be restocked. Cheaper than imported ones, too.

Frijoles and refried beans are made from pinto beans. Many years of living in Thailand I have yet to see on single pinto bean other than when Villa Market stocked the canned variety. So if you know of a place one can purchase dried pinto beans in bulk or even small packages please share.

Tops and Central Market now almost always have dried pintos in both their house brand called My Choice and the Waitrose brand. They also have Casa Fiesta refried pintos. Always have them for the last five years or so.

In Bangkok anyway. Maybe not upcountry......

Thanks for the tip but, sorry to say, I live in Khon Kaen. Never seen died pintos in the Tops Supermarket here. I was in the habit of making a monthly trip to Villa Market in Udonthani but the last two trips came home mostly empty handed as the usual products I went for were out of stock. Used to get Hormel Canned Chili at Tops but haven't been in stock and noticed that ordering label on the shelve has been removed. Used to get Casa Fiesta can goods too but those haven't been in stock lately either. Next trip to BKK I will make a special effort to find dried pinto beans. We were in KL last week and noticed lots of canned Casa Fiesta products on the shelf in one Mall Super Market so I know they are still around, just not floating their way up to Issan.

[user82374298374]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Frijoles refritos and pickles and waffles are easy to make at home. No need to wait for them to be restocked. Cheaper than imported ones, too.

Not all of us have the time and inclination to dork around in the kitchen making things from scratch. Our time is more valuable than whatever money is 'saved' making things from scratch.

[Ghostnigel]

Noticed that Tesco are running out of Brook baked beans. Was visiting immigration today so thought I would get a few cans at the nearby Tesco, one can left so now all Tesco for a 50 kick radius are out of stock.

You can get packs of 3 in Makro (Korat city). loads left, bought some myself.

There is a local Makro but never been sure quite how they work. Can I just walk in and buy? Do I need a card? Can I get a card? How much do I need to buy?

No you don't need a card, its only for getting points on....you can get a card if you spend over 2,000 baht in one hit