Prices at Supermarkets and Grocery Stores in Bangkok. Consumer Price Data.

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Smoking and Drinking in Bangkok
Supermarkets review : Tops, Foodland, Gourmet Market (at Emporium and Siam Paragon)
Books and Bookstores : Asia Books, Kinokuniya, Bookazine

Price Comparisons at different 'Supermarkets' in Bangkok.

The prices below where paid at the beginning of Januari 2008. Possibly we will include more items in the future, and repeat our survey regulary, which would give an indication of inflation in Bangkok and Thailand. Inflation data provided officially do not seem to reflect well what we notice during our shopping trips. While official inflation is often noted to be between 1-3 %, we think it is more likely in the 5-10% per year range.

There is lot of choice in supermarkets when doing your grocery shopping in Bangkok. We have the habit of shopping around. There is our 'basic' shopping at Foodland, then there are some items we can only find at other shopping outlets such as Villa Market, Gourmet Market (Siam Paragon and Emporium). We also drop in regularly at Tops (Robinson at Soi 19, Sukhumvit Road) because it is closeby. For the comparison below we also visited Tesco-Lotus at Fortune Town, since it is reputedly 'cheap'.

We compared the prices of some very basic food and toiletry items, which we assumed (wrongly) to be available at all stores we visited. 7-Elevens were not included. Most items in our list where not available at 7-Elevens. Nevertheless, it is easy to notice that prices at 7-Elevens are higher than what you would pay in any supermarket (but they are conveniently located). As an example, the price of a can of Singha beer is 30 baht.

Items included : Bega Superlights (processed cheese), 10 slices; Fragata Virgin Olive Oil (500 ml). Scotch-Brite Scrub Sponge (original); can of Singha beer ; Rejoice Complete shampoo (400 ml); Tipco one liter of Tangerine Juice ; Listerine Tartar Control mouthwash 250 cc.
cheapest ; most expensive

In Table 2 below we set the average price of each item to = 100. Then we calculated the following : (price of item/average price)*100. The results give the following : if the value is below hundred the item is lower than average, if higher than 100, the item is more expensive than average. Also the percentage of difference from average is indicated. In Table 3 'average' averages all the corresponding items listed before in Table 2. The column 'comparison' indicates the cheapest store (value set to 100), and indicated the difference with other stores. For example if 110, then the store is 10% more expensive than the cheapest store. Statistics of these data are not optimal, however, the trends seem reliable enough.

The results are interesting and indicate the following. For basic consumer goods (foods and some common household items) Foodland has the lowest prices. Tops (Robinson Sukhumvit), Gourmet Market (Siam Paragon), Tesco-Lotus are close together, from 5 to 7 % more expensive. Villa Market is clearly the most expensive supermarket (more than 12 %), actually, out of the 7 items available at Villa Market, 5 rank as the most expensive. There may be an error due to the limited number of items evaluated. The one expensive item (Fragata Oil) at Tesco-Lotus possibly disturbs its overall ranking.

Tops Market Place is located in most Central Department and Robinson Department Stores. Here the entrance to Tops Market Place in the basement at Robinson Sukhumvit, soi 19, Sukhumvit Road.

Now, there is a additional problem. Tops supermarket offers some cheaper goods for 'members'. You can elect to fill out a form, then you get a shopping card with your customer ID, which allows you to buy certain discounted goods. Regularly, some items are rather deeply discounted. This was the case for two items on our shopping list. Tipco Tangerine Juice was priced lower at 59 baht (down from 69 baht), while Rejoice Complete shampoo was deeply discounted at 69 baht (down from 99 baht). When taking into account the discounts for members, we get a different result :

The cheapest store becomes Tops. The value for the other shops :
Tops
Foodland (+0.2%)
Gourmet Market (+.7.5%)
Tesco-Lotus (+5.7%)
Villa Market (+11.3%)

One can conclude that Foodland is the cheapest, but Tops becomes equally cheap when you use your member card for buying discounted items. Gourmet Market and Tesco-Lotus are about 6-7 % more expensive, while Villa Market is by far the most expensive supermarket, around 11% more expensive.
Some remarks : Gourmet Market at Siam Paragon does rather well in our comparison. This may indicate that the prices for basic goods are not that inflated (as one may think). However, Gourmet Market relies more on selling upmarket shopping items, which are rather pricey. These include imported fruits, nuts, Japanese food, and other gourmet items, which are not measured here.
Tesco-Lotus may be cheap overall. However, just one item we bought there was heavily priced. It was the bottle of Fragata Olive Oil. Possibly this indicates a policy at this discount retailer. Possibly most goods are sharply priced. However certain items, which may be less price-sensitive do not have discounted prices. Olive oil (not bought by your regular Thai family) might be just such an item.

Shopping at Siam Paragon | Emporium Shopping Complex Sukhumvit | Shops around Siam Square

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