Supermarket fun...

[Chas]

So now I am supposed to go out and try to change the way Thailand IS and the way Thai people do things? (Didn't this all get hashed out on a previous thread?)

Anyway, no experience speaking with managers at all I'm afraid.

But, I do remember a big farang "push" here a while back for soundtrack movies in which several people claimed to have talked to managers. . .and that certainly came to nought. We checked just last night and all four theatres are showing Thai ghost movies in Thai.

Hey, this is Thailand and all of this is just the way they do things here. All we can do is complain to each other on this forum!

[DawnHRD]

A friend on another forum is drinking buddies with one of the high-ups in Tesco. Basically, according to him, there is no profit margin for Tesco to sell too many of the items we want. They cater for Thais. You guys can try & I hope you prove my friend (& I secondhandedly) wrong, as it would be better for all of us, but I fear it won't make a bit of difference.

Mum & I spoke to Tesco management when they first opened about a certain type of frozen dog food they sometimes stock. We wanted to put in a bulk order of about 70 packs a week (can't remember the exact number, but it was fairly large). They agreed , but never came through. Sometimes there weren't any. Sometimes we had to go & pull the stock out of the freezer. They never had the stuff waiting for us in their cold room. Luckily, we no longer really need the stuff, thanks to the generosity of the Hilton, donating leftovers.

[Big Boy]

Lucky dogs

[DawnHRD]

Yeah - leftover steak, lobster, veggies, Peking duck - these dogs eat better than me!

[huahinsimon]

So now I am supposed to go out and try to change the way Thailand IS and the way Thai people do things? (Didn't this all get hashed out on a previous thread?)

Oh, Chas, you got it cold.!! These posters on HHAD want changed WHAT THEY WANT CHANGED because its REASONABLE. like dont drive against traffic, dont drink and drive, ALL OF WHICH I AGREE WITH---- BUT IT GOES AGAINST THEIR 'MAI PEN RAI' AND TIT excuse they give whenever what you dont like ofends them.

They are so easy to pick out. They have businesses here, esp restaurants, nothing is their fault. its the staff, or Monday night, or what do you expect in a 3rd world country?. never mind the restaurant offered it. ie European cuisine, aint their fault. you be the fool for believing it. TIT no olive intended
well, olive intended.
so buck up mate, you and i'll have lots of time on this forum, if you havent got a life like I dont, because the cannon fodder just never tires of presenting themselves between the cross-hairs. just Shot'em down

next beers on me
HHS

[Super Joe]

you're starting to sound like a broken record si

relax a bit, enjoy life here, take the rough with the smooth

for someone who likes to dish out so much criticism, you are not too good at taking it
you don't appear to like the taste of your own medicine, but who are you going to blame for that ??, you made it after all
.

[Big Boy]

Chas,

I'm not advocating a complaint - totally the opposite. A simple request. If they say no, you will have an undisputed platform from which to dis Tesco.

Until you, or somebody else makes that request, you have no real grounds for complaint. Your previous argument certainly doesn't have any foundation

like the movie theater above it, the interest of management in making this farang or any farang a "happy camper" is nil.

Unless, of course you can prove the link between Tesco and the cinema

[Chas]

Well, my Tesco "gripes" have mostly to do with not finding the experience of shopping there a very pleasant one.

I feel that what we have there now is just the "Thai way" of doing the big store thing and I have to live with it. . .and hope for Villa or some other place to be a bit more pleasant.

The items I have been regularly disappointed in finding are large cucumbers and decent tomatoes, and bagged apples are sometimes scarce and these are not specifically farang foods. They also always run out of meusli which IS a farang food and the closest thing to a healthy breakfast food I have found for myself (they just dont stock oatmeal) and dare I mention it, black olives!
They had some tinned pitted ones a few weeks ago, I got hooked on them for my salads and now they are gone.

The "link" between Tesco and Major Cineplex is that both are Thai managed, aimed at a Thai market in Thailand.

[jjbones]

The "link" between Tesco and Major Cineplex is that both are Thai managed, aimed at a Thai market in Thailand.

In a nutshell. What is so odd about that?

There are decent shopping options in this town, Hua Hin Ham and Bacon, the shopping mall, the supermarket just down from the police station (the op by the way), and on occasion Tesco.. perhaps there are others.

I look forward to Villa opening of course, but I hope I will be decent enough to remember, and continue to shop, in those establishments that at least bothered to target our market.

[Chas]

In a nutshell: nothing. That is the point.

I will look for the supermarket mentioned previously that is near the Police station. I cant remember ever seeing it but it seems worth a look.

That old "shopping mall" is horrendously depressing (IMHO) and I dont know that they have targeted ANY market unless it be totally clueless tourists. I never felt the least bit welcome in there!

And I never buy either Ham or Bacon and so have not gone looking for this place.

[norm]

Tesco seems to have a hard time tracking inventory. Example diet coke in 6 pack they are out of it more often than not.

[BaaBaa.]

And I never buy either Ham or Bacon and so have not gone looking for this place.

I never buy Buffalo so I've never been to Bills,
cant stand Whisky so I cant drink in JWs and Ive certainly never been to Dicks office.

[dtaai-maai]

Well, my Tesco "gripes" have mostly to do with not finding the experience of shopping there a very pleasant one.

Well, my memories of Tesco in the UK aren't exactly fond ones!

Once again a thread seems to be going off the rails, not without help (not referring to you here, Chas).

As far as Tesco is concerned, I think BB is absolutely right. The customer can only ask. He/She's probably not likely to get a more positive response than a smile accompanied by "I'll see what I can do," but only then can we legitimately complain.

[Big Boy]

All that I am saying is that if you don't ask, you'll get what you're given. Of course, that could well be the case if you do ask. If you don't have the gumption to ask.............

I agree that there are other shops that do cater for the Farang, and I also use, and will continue to use them when I'm there.

The "link" between Tesco and Major Cineplex is that both are Thai managed, aimed at a Thai market in Thailand.

Silly me, I forgot that all Thais had been assimilated, and were working for the collective.

I ask my earlier question (not to sandman this time, but to all of you) again:

If you reversed the situation, and you were the manager of my local Yate Tesco, you could probably satisfy the locals, but would you know what Thai foods my wife would need? In such circumstances I could whinge a lot, or be proactive and ask you to stock the right food.

If its such a lost cause, I despair that so many expats feel obliged to continue shopping there. Or are your lives so dull, you need a journey to Tesco just to give you something to moan about? Of course its easier to hide behind an anonymous forum name and moan, than to dare speak to a big bad Thai person

[Wanderlust]

Big Boy,
I wouldn't even consider asking a Tescos in the Uk to stock something i want, let alone one in Thailand! That is not because I am scared of anyone, but on a more pragmatic level, having worked in retail, I am pretty certain that no Tesco store manager anywhere has control of the lines he stocks, although he can feed information back to 'Head Office'; however it is not the 'Thai Way' to complain or criticise, or even take something back that is faulty, so any comments by a farang about not stocking some Greek Olives (for example) is almost certain to be met by blank stares and incomprehension, and quite possibly some indignation as well (who are these people to tell us what to stock for Thai people in Thailand?) as i doubt there will be any system in place in Thailand to deal with this situation. I think there may be some bigger Tesco stores elsewhere in Thailand that do stock some of the items people here want, because the ones I have been to in Bangkok are much better, but the problem from day one with the Hua Hin Tesco is that it was never even close to being big enough, and consequently they are constantly refilling shelves and often run out of certain products; the fact that the space allocation must have been done by a 3 year old, with huge areas devoted to low volume items like TVs, childrens toys, and clothes (which all have clear aisles because they never need restocking when the store is open) exacerbates the problem, as does the quite senseless checkouts which do not have conveyer belts (I believe that these are some of the gripes that others wanted to mention). Villa may be the answer to getting certain items, but I don't think it will provide the one stop shopping that most people want, and what 'super' markets were meant to provide originally. As it stands now in Hua Hin, Tescos is the closest thing to that, but it is still a long, long way from being any sort of shopping solution for those that don't want to spend half their lives going to an assortment of shops to get their supplies. Much like the cinema, it raised our hopes and then dashed them almost as soon as it opened...