Always eager to accomodate their customers, international supermarkets chains conduct surveys in order to satisfy their needs.

While doing so in Thailand, they apparently came to the conclusion that the local customers don't like to chew, especially when it comes to dry food such as chips or cookies, for example.

They have thus instructed their staff accordingly:

 "while handling packs of chips, cookies and the likes, do not handle with care...if the shelf provides space for 10 packs, try to make space for 12 or more by applying enough pressure, with both hands if necessary...at the cashier, once you have managed to fill one of our super resistant plastic bags with 4 supersized bottles of Coke, try to insert a pack of chips in the middle, it will cushion the shocks... refrain from playing football with packs of cookies, since it might tear the packaging open and let some crumbs escape...remember, we do our best to sell our customers what they want, and in the Land of Smiles what they want are crumbs, lots of it...let' em eat crumbs!"

Come on now ... which Thais can afford chips at these prices ?

(Aldi/Lidl,...0,69 euro = +/- 26 THB for 250 gr !! )

Living at the end of the food transport chain perhaps?  Remember when in Homestead, Florida we would get what other supermarkets did not want as it was not worth returning with goods - but at least there were discounts and sale price for such.

@Lopburi 3 : There are some discounts here too ... like at Lotus ... chips a few baht cheaper because they're out of date .

OP....you are so right, in ten plus years i don't think i've ever had a packet of biscuits with all the biscuits in one piece.   Crackers can be pretty bad too and even chocolate bars are often broken.  You do wonder how the hell they can break so many packets and i started to wonder if it was some sort of contest between the staff to see who can do the most damage !

 

As for chips (crisps); i refuse to buy bags full of air and don't bother with them.

4 hours ago, BuaBS said:

@Lopburi 3 : There are some discounts here too ... like at Lotus ... chips a few baht cheaper because they're out of date .

I can't see any sell-by date on chips, at least on Lays...these things are quasi-immortal, even though there are not unbreakable..

Discounts are generally a clever way to increase the price while keeping us smiling.

Here is how it goes: a pack of Lays that retailed for 25 baht is now offered at 27 baht, but...if one buys 2 packs, then one pays 48 baht! This goes on for a couple of weeks, after which the new price of 27 baht becomes the norm.

Meanwhile, the ratio of full size chips/crumbs remains unchanged at around 20%.

 

My 5 baht bag of Lays is clearly marked with "MFD" (manufactured) and "BBF" (best before) date six months later.  No chips broken here in Bangkok.

Not sure about about Thailand but Frito Lays is well known to use GM in their snacks. If I ever buy chips here I get the local brands, also never seen them smashed to crumbs either.

On 7/9/2017 at 1:39 PM, lopburi3 said:

My 5 baht bag of Lays is clearly marked with "MFD" (manufactured) and "BBF" (best before) date six months later.  No chips broken here in Bangkok.

Bangkok gets all the good crisps (chips if you like) while the rest of us get the left-overs. Typical!

Solution to your problem dont buy packets of biccies or crisps.

Make your own biccies much better. 

Am intending to try making crisps tm. 

 

3 hours ago, chickenslegs said:

Bangkok gets all the good crisps (chips if you like) while the rest of us get the left-overs. Typical!

There is that (Bangkok first), and also I don't remember seing 5 baht packs of chips on the shelves of either Lotus, Big C or Tops, the main supermarkets chains in the country.

 

Small 5 baht packs are available mostly at mom and pops shops, and being blown full of air like balloons, it is indeed difficult to break the 5 chips tucked inside...I know since my wife runs one of those mom and pops shops...

 

For those who have not experienced the crumbs, just try and buy a family pack at Lotus...

 

Actually these 5 baht bags were either from Lotus or Tops delivery service in a package of 10.  So perhaps the person who mentioned shelf squeeze has a point - along with daily move to dust shelves and repacking might well account for at least part of the crumb problem.

 

Indeed the nitrogen inside package helps protect both freshness and from physical damage - but that is also true of the larger sizes - there is a valid reason they are only half full.

Edited July 10, 20178 yr by lopburi3

My problem with chips is not so much that many are broken, but that once in a while you get a pack where the oil has gone rancid.  Regardless of the sell-by date, if you leave them sitting in a hot warehouse for two months...