Siam Paragon - World Class Shopping in Bangkok

Video of Siam Paragon at bottom of this page.

Siam Paragon operates since December 2005. It is a quite large shopping complex conveniently located at the Siam Square main skytrain (BTS) station. We go there about once a week, so the review of Siam Paragon featured below, is based on our day-to-day experience of visiting and shopping there.

Siam Paragon (at Siam main BTS station)

See Location Map

Getting a full overview of Siam Paragon is rather difficult, since any view is obstructed by the awful skytrain pillars in front of the building. The entrance at street level brings you into the food court and within easy access to the Gourmet Supermarket. More convenient is the wide connection (really spacious) with the skytrain station. To move about the large shopping complex, you will find escalators in front of you. Walking about 100 meters in a rightward direction (follow the arrows) brings you to the elevators.

Siam Paragon has a basement (with food court, as mentioned) and as far as we could figure out 5 open floors. Each floor has retail shops (we do not quite know whether 'retail' is a proper word for some of the huge shops we saw) running parallel to the street, and access to a department store, called Siam Paragon Department Store, that is located towards the center and the back of the building.

The Gourmet Market at Ground Level of Siam Paragon

Lighting and interior design inside Siam Paragon Shopping Complex are really well done.

Hopefully just the names of the sections on the different floors, will indicate what and where to find the goods you are looking for.

Walking through the retail outlets at Siam Paragon we noticed the following : Lots of food outlets at basement level : Subway, Auntie Anne's, McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, Au Bon Pain. On the second floor we actually saw open showrooms for both Maserati, Lamborghini and Ferrari cars. Asia Books is also on the second floor.
Furniture outlets (among them a large S.B. Furniture shop) on the 3rd floor. There is a Starbucks, much smaller than we would have anticipated, on the 3rd floor. There are 2 more Starbucks outlets in the complex, one located at Siam Paragon Cineplex.
IT City, our favored outlet for computers and computer accessories, has a large store on the 4th floor.
On the 4th floor there is also what is called 'A passage to Asian Arts and Crafts' with about 20 shops showing arts and crafts of Thailand and Asia.

The Kinokuniya bookstore at Siam Paragon is huge, and offers books in Thai, English, Japanese, Chinese, French and German languages.

The store that impressed us most (we are not at all impressed actually by luxury goods in general) was the huge Kinokuniya bookstore on the 3rd floor. Easily this store has more titles and more books in one place, than the combined total available at Asia Books stores in Bangkok. Kinokuniya store at Siam Paragon has different language sections. There is a large section for Thai, Japanese and English-language books. There are further smaller (but substantial section) for books in Chinese, French and German language. The bookstore also has a coffeeshop on the premises.
Sudoku lovers will find a large collection of Sudoku books.
Asia Books also has what must be its largest store in Bangkok (and Thailand) at Siam Paragon, but it can not really be compete with what Kinokuniya has to offer.

Siam Paragon has a few more interesting venues :
Siam Opera is located on the 6th floor.
Paragon CinePlex, KrungSri IMAX (movie theatres) are located on the 5th and 6th floors. There are 5 IMAX theatres and some 9 regular movie theatres. As most movie theatres in Bangkok, the seating is comfortable, the quality of the sound and pictures are excellent, and you get good value for money. Regular price tickets for movies are 140 baht. Do not go too lightly dressed, since the airconditioning at movie theatres creates a 'freezer' environment.
[We suggest you go to the movies in Thailand during the weekdays, and preferably during the day time, you will have ample seating available]

Siam Paragon Cineplex offers excellent value for money movie viewing.

There is an exhibition and convention center, as well as an Edutainment Center on the 5th and 6th floor.

The basement of Siam Paragon houses Sea Life Bangkok, containing some small and large aquariums, with a lot of marine creature like sharks, pengiums, sea turtles, etc. Admission is expensive, though.

Benefits of Siam Paragon :
The area between MBK Center and Central Chitlom was already the major shopping area in Bangkok. Siam Paragon has certainly reinforced that. Probably few people were actually waiting for yet another megastore, but now it is there and attracts a substantial number of visitors each day. The store is spacious, and it is rather comfortable walking around.
The competition may not like it. Siam Paragon is well located and widely connected to the skytrain station.
In the area, CentralWorld is the main competitor (for luxury shopping, much more people actually go the MBK Center, which offers more economically priced goods). Access from the skytrain is available to reach CentralWorld, but you will need to walk a bit. We do not know a lot about parking facilities at the different stores. But for walkers, and those of us who use public transport, Siam Paragon is easier to reach.
Foreign tourists can be divided in two groups. Westerners can probably not really be impressed by it all, and most of them do not really come and travel to Thailand, in order to buy luxury goods. It is another matter when considering Asian visitors. A lot of Japanese, Chinese (including Hong Kong and Singapore residents) are prone to consuming luxury goods. So if they are even modestly priced lower than in their country of residence, Thailand as a whole (and Siam Paragon) may benefit from their purchases. The European companies who produce a lot of the so called luxury brands, will also be very pleased with yet another outlet for their goods.During the Covid-19 pandemic, it was striking how much less visitors the luxury stores in Bangkok received, indicating how much the shopping malls are dependent on tourism.

Ticket boot for KrungSri IMAX theatres. There is a regularly changing programme for IMAX-movies.

Historical Context, Social Responsibilities?
It should be remembered that the present Siam Paragon is located on the premises of the old Intercontinental Hotel, which for many years was a landmark in Bangkok. The hotel was located in a small corner surrounded by a spacious green garden. This has now disappeared. We did not see any greenery at the present Siam Paragon (except of some palm trees in front), and it begs the question as to whether major developers should be forced to think also about the common good. As an example, we could say that all major construction works have to provide for enough available parking space. Likewise it would be a good idea if major developments would be expected to provide the presence of parks, greenery, children's corners etc. at their premises.

Management
Siam Paragon is a joint venture between The Mall Group and BHIC (Bangkok Intercontinental Hotels Co.). Besides The Mall Department Stores, The Mall Group also operates Emporium Shopping Complex, Siam Discovery Center.