Shopping Guide : Department Stores | Computers | Hardware, Do it Yourself, Furniture | Mobile Phones (limited information)| Sportswear | Fast food, bread (?), sandwiches, coffee shops | Smoking and Drinking in Bangkok | Supermarkets review : Tops, Foodland, Gourmet Market (at Emporium and Siam Paragon) | Books and Bookstores : Asia Books, Kinokuniya, Bookazine
Supermarkets and Hypermarkets
Along Sukhumvit road there is ample choice as to where to buy your groceries and daily necessities.
The best choice by far to do this is at Foodland in soi 5. It is open 24 hours a day, and actually busy at most times. The reason for being a best choice, is that you can find most necessary items and food here at lower prices than about anywhere else (except of course local markets) There is also a quite busy restaurant counter for a quick reasonable lunch or dinner. It is located close to the entrance of the soi, and the only thing against it, is that the local environment is not optimal, that is, there are prostitutes and a lot of people loitering around (doing what exactly?) around the area, giving it the appearance of a semi-criminal scene (with no police to be seen).
If you do your groceries at Foodland, even when having to take a taxi back to your hotel or apartment, you will save some money.
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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. |
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Tops Market Place (at Robinson Department Store, soi 19 ; connected to the Asoke skytrain station) is more fancy, has a foodcourt, but prices inside the supermarket are more than you would pay at Foodland. In effect, even when discounts or promotions are given, prices are still usually higher than at Foodland. Of course, you are at Robinson, and can do some shopping inside the department store.
You can get a membercard at Tops and will be asked to present it each time you buy things (you can also give your phone number, if you forget the card). There are regular discounts for members only (some discounts are borderline, but sometimes there are some really good deals). Furthermore what you spend is tallied, and after spending a certain amount, you will get a discount voucher. After shopping for many years about one a week at Tops, we actually accumulated enough 'bonus points' to get a cash discount of 100 baht. Be patient!
Villa Market around soi 33, is the original supermarket in the area, and popular mainly with foreigners. It is expensive though, but you can find some items here that are not easily found at other supermarkets, even though the store itself is not especially large. They have a large bagel collection for one thing, and also a large wine collection on the second floor. There is another Villa Market outlet on Sukhumvit Road, soi 49 (at least 3 km away from the main road), just opposite Dental Hospital (close to Samitivej Hospital) which is somewhat larger, and less cramped.
Another Villa Market branch is located in Sukhumvit Soi 11. It is not far away from main Sukhumvit Road. As other Villa Market outlets, there is also a large wine section here, and the store is not very busy.
The reason why mostly foreigners shop at Villa Market, is that a lot of imported (expensive) goods are available. For some reason a lot of foreigners seem to prefer imported broccoli or strawberries over local produce. It certainly can not be a question of taste, local produce has good quality. Of course, not everything is locally produced.
We noticed during our visits of Villa Market that quite a few 'fresh' food items such as blueberries, raspberries, Brussels sprouts, cut broccoli, are not dated. There is no info on when the food was put on display, and when the expiration date is. Such a policy will obviously cause customers to buy rapidly spoiling foods on occasion.
Close to the original Villa Market, on the upper floors of Emporium Department Store (connected to the Phromphong skytrain station) is a rather fancy supermarket (Gourmet Market) offering lots of attractive wares, especially a large collection of fruits and vegetables, and Thai food, you can not find easily elsewhere. Prices are a bit upscale (in view of its location at Emporium) and this Gourmet Market must have been build as an afterthought, since getting your things from the upper floors to street level and Sukhumvit Road is a chore, if you do not have a car parket in the basement.
As an example of the somewhat arbritray high price levels nowadays : We recently bought some imported blueberries (125 gram little plastic container) at 99 baht at Tops (with our member card), and saw the same ware for sale at Emporium Gourmet Market for close to 300 baht. Unfortunately there does not seem (certainly not for farangs) to be any consumer guides pointing out important price differences at different shopping locations.
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Gourmet Market (at Siam Paragon) offers locally produced at imported groceries. |
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Another Gourmet Market has opened in the basement at Siam Paragon. As a guideline we can report that the salad bar operates at a price level of 25 (20 with apparently permanent discount) baht per 100 grams. Salad bars at Tops supermarket operate at about 15 baht/100 grams, while Foodland gets by with pricing their salads at 12 baht/100 grams.
[not long ago the prices at the above mentioned salad bars were 25/12 and 7 baht/100 grams respectively. This says two important things about pricing in Thailand :
1.Price increases are not gradual, but often very substantial.
2.There is possibly much higher underlying inflation, than as reported in the media (government statistics)]
Interestingly, Siam Paragon's Gourmet Market gives a 5 % discount to foreigners, if you care to ask for a discount card at the customer service desk (copy of passport necessary, tell them you are a tourist) in front of the supermarket. It is only valid for 1 week, but if you don't mind the effort, I am sure they will just give you another card every time you ask.
Hypermarkets, offering cheaper goods, sometimes in bulk, and also cheap clothes and other necessities can be found when taking the subway. Tesco-Lotus is located at Rama 9 station, while Carrefour (and also a Robinson Department Store) is located at the next station, at Thailand Cultural Center. Tesco-Lotus is adjacent to Fortune IT Town, so you can browse through hardware and software available in Bangkok at the same location.
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7-Eleven outlet are located around Bangkok, usually at the entrance of sois coming off main roads. This 7-Eleven is located in a side street of soi 23, Sukhumvit Road. |
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Seven-Elevens are ubiquitous in Bangkok and can be found at the beginning of most sois, and on the main streets. At present, here are about 3,700 7-Elevens in Thailand, mostly in Bangkok, and they are doing a good trade. Wares are somewhat higher priced than in supermarkets, but the shops are quite convenient when you need only a few items like cola drinks or a beer.
See our Price Comparison Guide for Supermarkets and Grocery Stores in Bangkok : The TW Bega-Fragata Consumer Price Index
Shopping at Siam Paragon | Emporium Shopping Complex Sukhumvit | Shops around Siam Square
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