Rumour has it that its gonna be a gem store :-)

I drove by the location today.

Took couple of photos for folks who don't venture there so often. The mall is going to be quite large.

20150825-IMG_0122.jpg by Pekka Oilinki, on Flickr

20150825-IMG_0131.jpg by Pekka Oilinki, on Flickr

And the mandatory Safety First! photo

Safety First! by Pekka Oilinki, on Flickr

BTW it's a branch of this http://www.gemspavilion.com/ according to a sign if I read it right.

When i was living in the west, if someone had told me that phuket's most prestigious and largest shops would be gem shops i would of laughed in the face of the person..

But its true.. and the workers are making TONS of money. Non-english speaking staff make 50k+ per month.

Wow, created a bit of chat about this...since posting, I've seen a sign advertising it as a gem center or something. Rank. Not sure what I was hoping for...maybe a villa and a pub!

Thanks for your replies. Merry Christmas to one and all.

Another tour bus pitstop. Yawn.

Gem store for the Chinese on tour bus's

555 , good point.

Any one for side bet :-)

But you are correct it does not say ,

This building will be a museum

But there is a sign thats says

Thalang National Museum

But does anyone really care either way ,?

Wrong or right

I care and would been happier if nothing was built there, every shoppingsenter or construction near the roads make it soon impossible to cycle (cycling for training that is) anywhere on the island due to careless drivers driving in / out from the businesses. However I absolutely prefer a museum over a gem store, not so many of the road wreckers go there and the old museum behind the upcoming building could absolutely need a upgrade.

555 , good point.

Any one for side bet :-)

But you are correct it does not say ,

This building will be a museum

But there is a sign thats says

Thalang National Museum

But does anyone really care either way ,?

Wrong or right

Time to put this to bed:

There is a sign which includes the words "Thalang National Museum" but it tells you how to get to it: round the corner and down the street.

It's going to be a gem shop.

Over and out!

They are investing heavily on the Chinese market.

The Chinese Stock Exchange recently took a big hit, and with the recent Yuan devaluations, with more to come, Chinese tourist numbers may be down in the future.

Good

The gem mall has been open for some time. Has anyone visited it yet?

I heard that they are building a staff house at Ao Por at the moment.

Why is it that the owners of these places think it is fine to build over a huge area and leave totally inadequate parking on site, meaning that the staff and tour buses have to park on the road. I went by this place last Sunday and there were about 30 buses parked 3 deep, taking up more than 2 lanes. The road between Prince Of Sonkhla Uni and Honda Chao Fah is the same.

Ought to be a law......

lowprofile: are we talking about the same place? Because I drive past it daily and never see many vehicles there let alone 30 buses. Sometimes one bus in the parking lot visible from the road but usually it looks empty.

I always thought this gotta be part of the chinese group tours milking machine. Never see any normal people going there.

There are laws against the parking on the road but there's zero enforcement of anything. That road has been cleaned up by the army a few months ago to get rid of all the stalls on the road and now everything is back to normal. Shop owners claiming part of the road with cones as their own. In the evening hours it's down to a single lane. Pretty crazy.

But I have to say it looks pretty nice in the night. I'll take this over more townhouse concrete walls any day.

The gem mall has been open for some time. Has anyone visited it yet?

I heard that they are building a staff house at Ao Por at the moment.

Only Chinese tour buses are visiting the place.

The whole project is build by and for Chinese.

I visited the place today. The experience was of those <deleted> feelings. Well worth of visit, just for the experience.
I had personal tour guide / sales person to walk through the exhibition area and through the sales area.

Quite impressive.. and well planned selling method.

Story and photos:
https://oilinki.com/blog/royal-gems-pavilion-phuket-shopping-extravaganza

oilinki: great report. So it's exactly the same thing as Wang Talang on Chaofah West road but on steroids.

That place should be presented to the first year MBA students as "look kids, this is what is your target. Now we'll start how to get there".

Go and visit the place. It's worth it.

So the guys selling gems on ebay making a fortune too?

I know a couple girls who work at one of those places. They speak no english yet they are making 40k+, get gifts at every holiday/birthday/etc (ranging from 3k-100k) and then very often they get drawings for big prizes

Hard to believe so many gem places make so much money and actually hire very ugly non qualified girls when even 7/11 wont hire above 30

So the guys selling gems on ebay making a fortune too?

I know a couple girls who work at one of those places. They speak no english yet they are making 40k+, get gifts at every holiday/birthday/etc (ranging from 3k-100k) and then very often they get drawings for big prizes

Hard to believe so many gem places make so much money and actually hire very ugly non qualified girls when even 7/11 wont hire above 30

Mark ups must be horrendous & there is no chance for the Chinese to compare & a good chance they have never been close to buying jewellery before.