Which supermarket?

[Kathiejs]

We're moving from our guesthouse into an apartment tomorrow for almost 3 months, so we'll need to stock the cupboards (and I like to cook). We can walk to the Rimping by the river, but I'm wondering if it's worth (price wise) going out to Big C for a big initial shop? We'll need oil, flour, detergent, tinned stuff, cereals, mayo, loo rolls, spices, cheese, butter etc.

I'm assuming we'd need to get a tuk tuk back, but is it likely we'd be able to pick up a songthaew headed to Big C from Loi Kroh Road?

[daoyai]

Cheapest getting there option is a red ST to CM gate, yellow songteaw from near CM gate at Wualai Rd. ..they wait there till full but leave often go as far as SanPatong... something like 18 baht. Getting back use a red, yellow or tuktuk.

[fang37]

Rimping or Tops.

[MadMac]

Better rent or buy a scooter. You need transport in CNX.

[flyDelight]

There is only one good supermarket thats Tops, because it's Dutch.

[DaddyWarbucks]

There is only one good supermarket thats Tops, because it's Dutch.

Nonsense.

Many good supermarkets in Chiang Mai.

You're spoiled for choice.

[elektrified]

The little money you save (if anything), shopping at Big C will be eaten up + then some by the red songtaew back ~ cca 200 THB. Just go to Rimping if it is convenient for you. IMO there is no savings at Big C; only some good choices on farang imported foods. It takes a bit of work (member points and coupons) to save money at Tesco Lotus. Really, they are all about the same. Some things a little cheaper at all - some a little more. No difference.

Makro is good too - for some things; not all.

[MadMac]

Try wet markets as well. Should have one nearby. That's where the locals shop, not in TOPS.

For veggie go to Doi Kham (Royal Project). But again, you need transport, scooter.

Edited December 11, 2015 by MadMac

[Kathiejs]

Thanks - yes, we'll use markets for fresh stuff. Getting our own transport is not possible. I'd noticed in Bangkok that there wasn't much price difference between Tesco, Big C*, Tops and even the posh one in Paragon mall (Gourmet Market?) but Rimping is a new one for me.

*Except the central Big C often had heavily discounted French cheese - worth the bus journey for that alone ?

Edited December 11, 2015 by Kathiejs

[fang37]

For fresh food, markets definitely - much much cheaper.

[stuurman]

There is only one good supermarket thats Tops, because it's Dutch.

Not anymore Ahold sold the Tops supermarket chain many years ago and is now owned by the Thailand based Central Retail Company.

[flyDelight]

There is only one good supermarket thats Tops, because it's Dutch.

Not anymore Ahold sold the Tops supermarket chain many years ago and is now owned by the Thailand based Central Retail Company.

Aha. Also the south American Tops chain?

In that case, if it ain't Dutch - it ain't much.

[NancyL]

You might consider Macro for the "initial shop". I find them to be cheaper than Tops or Rimping for some items. I hire my tuk-tuk driver about once every 6 weeks or so to take me to Macro on Hang Dong road to stock up on items for my rather large freezer. Great value on frozen seafood, duck, steaks, cheese and the like. I don't know about paper products, detergent and such. Tops seems to have pretty good prices on these items and home delivery. I don't want to try to cram jumbo packs of TP and paper towels into a tuk-tuk!

It's nonsense that you need to have a motor scooter if you live in town. Tops and Rim Ping have great home delivery on orders over 1500 baht and, as mentioned, you'll soon develop a warm relationship with a few tuk-tuk drivers.

The local markets are great places to visit for good buys on fresh food and nice exercise, too, to walk to them.

[Kathiejs]

Oooo Makro...cheese ingots...I'd forgotten about those. I didn't know about the delivery services, thanks.

[pgrahmm]

Takes a little while to find out which stores carry sundry different things versus one another....

For us Rim Ping has one purpose for a visit ..... Makro another & Big C yet another.....Each has a value for specific items/purposes one over the other....Some better supplied for different types/ways of cooking/preparing food one over the other.....It is kind of a bummer here that for preperation of different things you might have to hunt down at different places until you get the knack of gathering what and where and building it into your routine.....

But - for the life of me I can't find Wolf's Garlic Hot Sauce ANYWHERE anymore......

Actually - until this thread I never gave a thought about how & where "in town" people shopped.....

It's obvious looking a some that they've never missed a meal though....

Edited December 11, 2015 by pgrahmm

[NancyL]

"In town" people may eat out more often than those who live in the 'burbs. Or buy meals from vendors in the Thai markets to bring home & "improve" with a few additions (one of my favorite ways of "cooking")

And there are little shops all over the city where you can pop in to get daily needs. For example, in our condo building, there is a mini-market that is run by a brilliant Thai lady who used to be a buyer for Rim Ping. She runs the store like a mini-Rim Ping (but without fresh meat) and knows the tastes of her good customers. She's game for stocking new items if a good customer recommends it. If you lived in our building she'd place an initial order for Wolf's Garlic Hot Sauce and you'd hear about it, too, if no one but you bought it! (yeah, I failed her with cottage cheese. asked to have it stocked, but only bought it once or twice a week and the only other lady who bought it moved away. oops, sorry!)

The Tesco Lotus Express stores have a surprisingly good selection of fresh meat. There are Five Star Chicken stands almost everywhere.

People who live in the city walk places and observe the little shops in their neighborhoods. You'd be surprised at what you can find within 300 meters of most in-town residences.

In fact, it's one of the things I love about living in the city. I can be cooking dinner, realize I forgot to purchase a key ingredient and send Hubby out at 8 pm (on foot) and he's back within 10 minutes with whatever was missing. Usually quicker, since the mini mart in the condo stays open until 8:30 pm. and has most of the items I sometimes forget (eggs, a can of cream of mushroom soup, milk, etc) Can't do that living in the 'burbs, where you have to get the car out of the garage and head toward the superstore.

[daoyai]

Kasem store for 95% of my farangian food needs.

[scorecard]

Thanks - yes, we'll use markets for fresh stuff. Getting our own transport is not possible. I'd noticed in Bangkok that there wasn't much price difference between Tesco, Big C*, Tops and even the posh one in Paragon mall (Gourmet Market?) but Rimping is a new one for me.

*Except the central Big C often had heavily discounted French cheese - worth the bus journey for that alone ?

I can suggest a good tuk tuk man if your interested, reliable, safe driver, no games, speaks intermediate level English, always helpful, reasonable price.

PM me if you want his name and number.

[scorecard]

Everything you mention is available at Rimping on the river.

I doubt overall you would save very much money by buying the items you listed at Big C.

[elektrified]

Try wet markets as well. Should have one nearby. That's where the locals shop, not in TOPS.

For veggie go to Doi Kham (Royal Project). But again, you need transport, scooter.

That's funny, I was just in TOPS this morning. The store was filled with locals (Thais)! In fact I don't think there was more than 3 farangs in there at the time (myself included).

[true blue]

as nancy says tops will deliver,quite sure others will,

[stuurman]

There is only one good supermarket thats Tops, because it's Dutch.

Not anymore Ahold sold the Tops supermarket chain many years ago and is now owned by the Thailand based Central Retail Company.

Aha. Also the south American Tops chain?

In that case, if it ain't Dutch - it ain't much.

After the accounting scandal in 2003 they were forced to terminate their business in South America and Asia.

In Rimping Kad Farang I saw bitterballen, kroketten And frikandellen btw

[pgrahmm]

"In town" people may eat out more often than those who live in the 'burbs. Or buy meals from vendors in the Thai markets to bring home & "improve" with a few additions (one of my favorite ways of "cooking")

And there are little shops all over the city where you can pop in to get daily needs. For example, in our condo building, there is a mini-market that is run by a brilliant Thai lady who used to be a buyer for Rim Ping. She runs the store like a mini-Rim Ping (but without fresh meat) and knows the tastes of her good customers. She's game for stocking new items if a good customer recommends it. If you lived in our building she'd place an initial order for Wolf's Garlic Hot Sauce and you'd hear about it, too, if no one but you bought it! (yeah, I failed her with cottage cheese. asked to have it stocked, but only bought it once or twice a week and the only other lady who bought it moved away. oops, sorry!)

The Tesco Lotus Express stores have a surprisingly good selection of fresh meat. There are Five Star Chicken stands almost everywhere.

People who live in the city walk places and observe the little shops in their neighborhoods. You'd be surprised at what you can find within 300 meters of most in-town residences.

In fact, it's one of the things I love about living in the city. I can be cooking dinner, realize I forgot to purchase a key ingredient and send Hubby out at 8 pm (on foot) and he's back within 10 minutes with whatever was missing. Usually quicker, since the mini mart in the condo stays open until 8:30 pm. and has most of the items I sometimes forget (eggs, a can of cream of mushroom soup, milk, etc) Can't do that living in the 'burbs, where you have to get the car out of the garage and head toward the superstore.

Sounds like years ago in the states with the Deli & M&P stores around the neighborhoods....One thing I like about LOS.....That is an advantage - Remember as a kid someone had a dog with saddlebags and it would trot on over to the little corner store with a note in it's mouth and head back home with it's tote....

Here we're a 5 minute bicycle ride away from the Nong Kwai market and T/L good sized quick market with ATMs so good luck on our part......

Others are marooned a little further out......

Do have to admit only once lived in a apartment/townhouse and it was the end unit - more a country mouse I suppose....

[pgrahmm]

Duplicated post

Edited December 11, 2015 by pgrahmm

[NancyL]

After the 2011 floods, which interrupted the supply chain in Thailand for staple goods like TP, paper towels, kitty litter, cat food, Coke Zero for weeks, we remodeled our condo to create a large storage closet for these items. (You don't know what it's like to be down to your last can of cat food and no more kitty litter except what's in the box when you have cats in a condo and a husband looking for these items in the city on foot!) Now I keep about a month's supply of these "staple" items in the storage closet. I've found that Tops, with their home delivery service, is the best source for my once-a-month purchase to restock the supply closet. The nice ladies at the customer service counter at Kad Suan Kaew always look over my receipt and somehow come up with free gift items for me, too, each time. I'm not certain how they decide what items I'm entitled to in looking at my receipt. Some are obvious -- like the cooler or bedsheets with the Coca-Cola logo because I'm buying 20 six-packs of Coke Zero. Others are more obscure, like nice plastic food storage containers or cheap stuffed animals with logos of products I didn't buy. In any event, whatever we can't use, I put out in the recycling area in the condo where I know the staff will help themselves.

Interestingly, after the 2011 floods, most of the fresh food supply was restored fairly quickly. Oh sure, some items some from the south of Thailand and are run thru distribution warehouses near Ayuttaya that were underwater for weeks, but you could definitely get back to cooking fairly soon.

Rim Ping is a locally owned grocery store chain and they were much nimbler in responding to supply interruptions. Tops is managed out of Bangkok and is very "top down". It seemed that no decisions were being made because the Bangkok-based employees were busy with their personal problems due to the flooding and the local managers didn't have authority to act on their own. Not so with Rim Ping. Soon, they started to bring some goods in directly from Korea by air straight into Chiang Mai, totally avoiding Bangkok. Sure it made for expensive Kellogg's breakfast cereal and cat food for a time, but at least they had it on the shelves.

[NancyL]

Sounds like years ago in the states with the Deli & M&P stores around the neighborhoods....One thing I like about LOS.....That is an advantage - Remember as a kid someone had a dog with saddlebags and it would trot on over to the little corner store with a note in it's mouth and head back home with it's tote....

Here we're a 5 minute bicycle ride away from the Nong Kwai market and T/L good sized quick market with ATMs so good luck on our part......

Others are marooned a little further out......

Do have to admit only once lived in a apartment/townhouse and it was the end unit - more a country mouse I suppose....

LOL -- that's Hubby with the saddlebags. One evening I sent him downstairs to the mini-mart for a can of Cream of Chicken soup and the Thai lady who owns the store wouldn't sell it to him. She insisted that I always use Cream of Mushroom. He had to come back up to our condo to get a note from me saying it was OK to buy the Cream of Chicken. I was trying out a new recipe! (That will teach him to forget his phone and -- of course -- he doesn't actually know my phone number or his own so that she could have called!)

[Konini]

I've used Tesco delivery service a few times as there is a limit to how well I can persuade Mr K that I'm safe carrying on the back of the bike. I get newsletters telling me about special offers, and delivery - 60 baht - has always been free every month since I started getting the notifications earlier this year if you spend 3,000 baht in the last week of the month and in November it was only a 1,000 spend for free delivery in the last couple of days so I stocked up with a dozen big bottles of Pepsi Max, bread flour and made it up to 1,000 with cheap vodka.

Big C and Tops also do home deliveries, presumably the same kind of pricing/free offers. I really wish that Rimping would sort out their online shopping, I thought it was due at this time last year. I just like to browse and see what is on special or 2 for the price of 1 without going to the trouble of making my way to the shop.

(With delivery, you can either order everything online or go to the shop, browse, buy and tell them you want delivery.)

Price wise, I find them to be much of a muchness (except Makro), although I can buy washing up liquid, bleach and other cleaners cheaper from the little shop opposite the temple at Warrorot than the 3 main supermarkets- cheaper still at Makro, but I've always been one for stocking up and buying bigger sized bottles and packets.

Rimping has a bigger selection of western food, although with some things you are paying a king's ransom for. I don't see the point in buying imported cleaning liquids and gels just because they are the ones I've been used to all my life (although if they sold Domestos here I would buy it and I bring Ariel laundry liquid for whites back from UK as nothing works as good as it). Try local brands but buy small packs to see if you like them before buying a bigger one. Took me a long time to find a washing up liquid I likes. Also, always look at the marked down food in the fridges, I once chanced upon eye and scotch fillets reduced from 500-800 baht marked down to 50 baht in Tops at Kad Suan Kaw. I couldn't believe it and snatched the lot of them, 14, proving that my free standing freezer purchase was very much worth while. Not just meat, I've got loads of bacon and different cheeses in the freezer, even some lamb steaks and chops, but with fruit and veggies even the marked down things are more expensive than the markets and not worth it.

Good luck, and if you have any questions just ask - we all started out as a newbie. There is a thread which hasn't had any movement for a long time where members let everyone know when there is outstanding price reductions or clearances on grocerys at the supermarkets (and Marks and Spencer).

[Konini]

Cheapest getting there option is a red ST to CM gate, yellow songteaw from near CM gate at Wualai Rd. ..they wait there till full but leave often go as far as SanPatong... something like 18 baht. Getting back use a red, yellow or tuktuk.

I learned the hard way how hot the back of songteaws are and how long they can wait if you're unlucky one day when we first arrived. I would advise never to get into a stationery one, always flag down a moving one.

Just on Wualai Road, opposite the 7/11 is a bus stop. I always wait there and either flag a yellow songteaw down or catch the bus if one comes along- I've never waited more than a couple of minutes. All of the yellows go past Tesco, Big C and Makro so you don't have to ask the driver, Tesco is 10 baht and 15 to Big C/Homepro and Makro.

If you want Rimping there is a free shuttle to Promenada, and for Tops there is a free shuttle to Central Festival.

[NancyL]

Ah, you've struck a cord here. You know this goes back to the hunter-gather days, which is why guys are so good at sitting around in small groups looking at sports on the telly or the scene on Loi Kroh all day and we're so good at sussing out just where is the best place to buy washing powder and kitty litter in Chiang Mai.

Yes, I'd totally forgotten about some of the shops in Warorot market for cleaning products and personal care items. Made a trip there just today to purchase fabrics and ended up spending more on those items. Helped that the weather was nice and the pack mule was cooperative as I made the rounds of my favorite shops in Warorot and he stood in the street trying not to get hit by motorscooters. No home delivery from those places.

[Kathiejs]

Rimping has a bigger selection of western food, although with some things you are paying a king's ransom for. I don't see the point in buying imported cleaning liquids and gels just because they are the ones I've been used to all my life (although if they sold Domestos here I would buy it and I bring Ariel laundry liquid for whites back from UK as nothing works as good as it). Try local brands but buy small packs to see if you like them before buying a bigger one. Took me a long time to find a washing up liquid I likes.

I'm pretty much a brand slut even in the UK - with a few exceptions I buy what's cheapest, especially if it's not edible. For the last 2 years I've mostly been doing my laundry with bar soap or shampoo in a hotel wash basin, and the washing up soap at our place in Goa last month was some strange green paste in a tub. I'm sure whatever they sell here will be fine ☺