'The Commons' Coming to Minimize Mall Misery
By Cole Pennington
Correspondent


Photo: The Commons / Facebook

BANGKOK — When British economist William Forster Lloyd coined the term “tragedy of the commons” two centuries ago to refer to the spoiling of shared resources by individuals, it must have been after seeing the sidewalks of Bangkok.

Extend that to the capital city’s vast and numerous shopping malls which – apart from taking space which could have been a park or library – tend to offer an awful selection of stores, tasteless kitschy decor and misery-inducing parking. Thus the degraded public utility of malls many don’t want to visit because, too often, they really suck.

The Commons, a new Thonglor “community mall,” was designed to be free of tragedy. Partly because its commercial tenants won’t be the usual nepotism-preferred cronies, but a curated selection of vendors meant to go well together.

“I put my money down two years ago. I trusted the concept because here, unlike other malls, you know who will be next to you,” said Chris Foo of The Beer Cap, a craft beer bar opening to lubricate Commons patrons. “It’s just a bunch of people who really believe in each other's products.”

To minimize the mall misery, The Commons will also include 15-minute parking from the street, a daycare center and good ventilation.

Full story: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.php?newsid=1453109756


-- Khaosod English 2016-01-19

Like Food Street in Din Daeng...a bunch of KFCs and Japanese restaurants (usual suspects) thrust together as usual. Same old stuff...just trying to find a way to hike prices for foreign visitors too foolish to know any better.

Hardly a bunch of KFC's.

More like all the artisan food places opening together in one spot.

It's certainly not finished yet and you won't find much in the super cheap end I think.

Craft beer bar...well I'm not against that per se but what annoys me is they NEVER seem to stock local beers so you have a choice of paying 100 Baht or so for a Heineken rather than 280++ for some American imported ale.

Like Food Street in Din Daeng...a bunch of KFCs and Japanese restaurants (usual suspects) thrust together as usual. Same old stuff...just trying to find a way to hike prices for foreign visitors too foolish to know any better.

Except it's nothing like that at all.

A problem with malls, or the problem for Thailand?:

In 1833, the English economist William Forster Lloyd published a pamphlet which included an example of herders sharing a common parcel of land on which they are each entitled to let their cows graze. In English villages, shepherds had sometimes grazed their sheep in common areas, and sheep ate grass more severely than cows. He suggested overgrazing could result because for each additional sheep, a herder could receive benefits, while the group shared damage to the commons. If all herders made this individually rational economic decision, the common could be depleted or even destroyed, to the detriment of all.

What is common between malls and them? The first feature is ale. Available on both sides of Thonglor a kilometre long...?