Update 3 July 2009 :
Current pricing : Villa Market 265 baht ; Foodland 255 baht ; Tops 149 baht (139 for members of Tops Spot Reward) ; Gourmet Market (Siam Paragon) 299 baht.
The Blueberry Revelation
Many supermarkets in Bangkok have a wide choice of imported goods, including fruits and vegetables. As such, you will find for example find imported strawberries at about 5 times the price of local produce of similar quality. While widely available, these goods are invariably expensive, more so than seems justified. Coming from Europe, we can surely say that most imported fruits and vegetables there are much cheaper.
Nevertheless, there must be a market for imported fruits and vegetables. We picture ourselves the many housewives shopping around Bangkok's supermarkets, not really wanting to be in Thailand, and in some kind of revenge buying all kinds of expensive and often quite unnecessary goods to have for dinner. Jest aside, we also find ourselves buying imported blueberries regularly.
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Blueberries, a usually expensive treat in Bangkok |
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We have our habits, which include eggs and bacon for breakfast twice a week, and oatmeal the rest of the week. Occasionally we add bananas to our oatmeal (but there is a serious problem with this), but invariable we add our preferred blueberries, one of the most beneficial little fruits for your health.
So once our twice a week we go shopping to get a constant supply. They are not available at all times in all supermarkets. We know now that they are imported by air, since regular supply disappeared during the siege of Bangkok's airport by protesters at the end of 2008.
Gourmet Market at Siam Paragon offers the most reliable supply. Almost always they are imported from New Zealand (if we are not mistakes, also occasionally from Australia) and sell at a price of 229 baht for a 125 gram little box. It is commendable that Gourmet Market indicates a recommended expiry date, which is neglected by all other supermarkets.
Villa Market usually sells the same amount (brand names often differ from week to week, but the 125 gram weight seems to standard) for 269 baht. Even the usually cheaper Foodland offers blueberries (occasionally) at a price of more than 200 baht per box.
Now, interestingly, we often can find our supply at Tops Supermarket (beneath Robinson, Soi 19, Sukhumvit) for between 99 and 119 baht (129 baht for non-members). So that is the place where we usually look first.
Is it imaginable that Tops Supermarkets sells at a loss. Not likely. So even with a price of 99 baht, a profit is made by the supermarkets. What this also means is that prices in most places are highly inflated, and one could argue that they are higher than reasonable. We reckon this is the case for a lot of the imported goods available. We only can indicate this by the example of blueberries, since Tops Supermarket, for one reason or another, is out of step with the other supermarkets.
The above does not only apply to fruits and vegetables, or to supermarkets alone.
For example, we are very interested in various home air cleaners. Often, one sees air purifiers for sale with a price tag of many hundreds of dollars (and expensive filters to boot). When searching a bit online, the same air cleaners can often be found to be on sale of 60 or 70 dollars. We do neglect the issue of taxation of various electrical appliances here though.
Just a message, that for reasons of greed, taxation and possibly legislation, various imported commodities in Bangkok are overly expensive.
Update end February 2009 : Blueberries now available for 95 baht at Villa Market, and 139 baht at Foodland. What is going on here? Do the managers of these stores read this article? Did the producer somehow noticed it and got miffed? I have no idea about business, but somehow it looks not beneficial to the producer if goods are sold at a high price. [Gourmet Market at Siam Paragon still sells for 229 baht]
Interestingly, raspberries are still overpriced as before.
Anyway, we follow up.
More : Comparison of prices at supermarkets in Bangkok
Shopping at Siam Paragon | Emporium Shopping Complex Sukhumvit | Shops around Siam Square
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