Tesco Lotus

Post by **Governor** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 1:08 pm

Guess

I'm afraid I wore a uniform then a suit and a bunch of keys. You are of course right about the location, I'm a Sainsburys man myself though I doubt if they are going to open one in HH.

Was in HH last week returning on Friday, drove to Big C on Wednesday not realising that Tesco was open for business.

Governor

Post by **tuktukmike** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 12:30 pm

Went to Tesco on saturday, my mistake.

Took about 45mins just to park, ok this is my own fault as the Thais flocked there for the first weekend.

It was what i expected, same same big C.

As for the complaints about the mall, i could not walk the aisles in Tesco due to huge groups of Thais who stop in the middle for a family conferance.

Overall though i think the whole thing is a good addition to hua hin, I just wish we could have a Foodland or Tops in town.

Now its time for me to go and buy my new Bowling Ball.

Mike.

Post by **lomuamart** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 8:05 pm

Just come back from down south, so fortunately missed the "grand opening" on Saturday. Havn't been in yet, so can't comment.
One thing I will say though is that there's a definite need for traffic lights outside, as I've mentioned before.
Noticed that there was no indication that any would be installed at the moment. I would have thought that this would have been a pre-requisite of the whole place opening - ie, the businesses in there pay for it, just like in the UK.
Seems this has been overlooked by the town planners.
Oh well - TIT.

Post by **Burger** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 9:51 pm

Went today and the basement car park has now opened.
Parking was much easier, took about 2 minutes to get in and same to get out.
Someone mentioned eariler that it was similar to Big C, much more selection and better quality food than Big C as far as I can see.

Nice to have some quality clothing on sale too, no need to trek down to the Factory Outlet place past Cha Am any more.

Burger

Post by **ajarnfrank** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 2:58 am

On Saturday, the governor of the province must have decreed that every Thai within 100 km of Hua Hin must visit the new shopping village. They all obeyed. What a mob scene!

I waited until Monday noon to actually visit. Not too crowded then, only 61.2% of the province was there. The car park for m/c is way too narrow (yeah, my bike and I ain't skinny, but it's only a CBR150). Tesco Lotus resembles the one I shopped at in Chiang Mai. Took the houseboy with me at 5:30 pm, and the place was a madhouse. Think of it: that one Tesco store must have 5 to 10 times the floor space that the Vannee Prahshit store at the downtown mall, with very wide aisles, and they must have rung up more sales in one hour than the Vanity Prashit store rings up in one day. This one Tesco store, not to mention HomePro and the other stores, will put inefficient stores out of business.

I feared that when my 2,000 baht of schtuff that I bought got to the kerb (curb), we couldn't find a tuk tuk. It took 3 seconds to flag one down.

Tesco has 1.25 liter bottles of Pepsi Maxx. I bought about 20 for 19 baht each, and each bottle is almost the size of four cans at 13 baht each. That's a savings of 660 baht right there.

Selection, selection, selection! You want it, they've got it. I remember needing paper towels at Vanshit Prannee one day. Even the Thai customers had no idea what I meant, and kept referring me to the toilet tissue. At Lotus, there were two brands, where you'd expect them.

And the food court in front of Lotus was jammed at 7 p.m. That's a tremendous amount of business being siphoned off of the usual places.

Clean floors, wide aisles, good lighting, decent prices, wide selection, apparently fresh produce - what more could you ask for?

Oh, maybe it's all under the control of the Dark Force and the Mafia; I don't know. But it looks like a right proper place to shop. Getting out wasn't that hard; the police channeled us unto Petsakasem pretty well.

Perhaps we should weep and wail that the good ol' days of Hua Hin are dead and gone. I'd rather celebrate. Pepsi Maxx, anyone?

Post by **Guess** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 3:21 am

ajarnfrank wrote:....I bought about 20 for 19 baht each, and each bottle is almost the size of four cans at 13 baht each. That's a savings of 660 baht right there.

In my view that was a waste of about 350 Baht. I can get twenty liters of drinking water for 10 baht. It does not contain any nasty chemicals and comes supplied in a reuseable container that does not end up poluting the countryside and endangering the life of fauna and flora.

Have you considered the fuel that you consumed and poluted the planet with to make the journey to "save 600 baht"?

Post by **Burger** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 8:08 am

I do feel a bit sorry for the home owners in the adjoining soi's, wonder if there's anyone parking in their roads, or how much extra noise they'll be from shoppers and people chucking out of the cinema/restaurants at night ?

Burger

Post by **johnnyk** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 9:10 am

Guess wrote:
ajarnfrank wrote:....I bought about 20 for 19 baht each, and each bottle is almost the size of four cans at 13 baht each. That's a savings of 660 baht right there.

...I can get twenty liters of drinking water for 10 baht. It does not contain any nasty chemicals....

You hope.

Post by **ajarnfrank** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 11:01 am

Yes, Guess, I could drink water. Let them eat cake, I say.

Water is so boring.

All that fuel I consumed to go buy the drinking fluids, you ask? The bike consumed about 8 baht of fuel to save maybe 800 baht.

Point being: the bike was fully loaded. Then the tuk tuk was fully loaded. And I shall be fully loaded with Pepsi Maxx for a week or two.

Post by **Perente** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 12:10 am

Just to warn every-one of a new scam I found at Tesco. Coming out with trolley full of goodies, 2 drop-dead stunners in mini-skirts and tight tops offered to help me pack. They then asked for a lift to to the Living Mall. On the way they started performing on each other in the back seat, then one climbed over and offered to make me "velly 'appy". While I was busy the other one stole my wallet

.

They were there on Saturday, Sunday and yesterday, but I couldn't find them at all tonight

Post by **Guess** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 4:36 am

Perente wrote:Just to warn every-one of a new scam I found at Tesco. Coming out with trolley full of goodies, 2 drop-dead stunners in mini-skirts and tight tops offered to help me pack. They then asked for a lift to to the Living Mall. On the way they started performing on each other in the back seat, then one climbed over and offered to make me "velly 'appy". While I was busy the other one stole my wallet .

They were there on Saturday, Sunday and yesterday, but I couldn't find them at all tonight

Perente, change your nationallity to Scottish and carry a cheap plastic wallet filled with decimated pages from the BKK post. That way if it happens again you will get a BJ for the cost of a plastic wallet.

Post by **Guess** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 5:14 am

aI have really come to end of myu tolerance of this topic. The Sun newspaper has been available for two years in Hua Hin but no posts about that.

For the sake of the Buddha please do not start one on the merits of Fucking Gonuts. McShit and FCK.

Anybody know when the bowling alley opens? I can the slip out for a couple of 200's while 'er indoors explores the goods of Tesco. I might even be rewarded with a plate of Sushi.

Post by **buksida** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 9:59 am

Had the pleasure of losing my Lotus virginity last night. Never again.

Firstly it took a good 20 minutes to get round the u-turn on Petchkasem that had by then tailed back a fair way, then it took about that again to find a parking spot - the whistle blowers were out in force. We were almost at the railway line and had a nice half a K walk back.

Inside was utter chaos, nobody knows where anything is as the signposts are feeble so whole extended families just stop where they feel like and start chatting about the new TV that uncle Sombat has just bought on credit over the next 250 years.

I did like the plasma screen section in Homepro ... but I always like that. The place is huge however it did seem very "Indexy" ie. overpriced. Tesco itself was pretty much the same as Big C is in Petchaburi, couldn't really see anything in there that you cant get elsewhere ... they just have more of it. Checkouts were quick and efficient ... unlike Big C, failed to meet the stunners that Perente mentioned, stealing the wallet wouldnt have been a problem as there was bugger all in it by this stage.

The next challenge was locating an operational lift to get the trolley downstairs ... wasnt happening, so another 20 minutes or so to get out of the place. This is definately not a "quick shop" place so I would advise letting the better half go alone while you get half a day to do as you please!

Post by **lomuamart** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 10:23 am

That's my mind made up then.
I intend to be the last ex-pat in town to visit this store.
I hate shopping, except at markets.

Post by **lomuamart** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 11:08 am

Just for interest's sake, here's a link to a Tesco story running today in The Guardian newspaper in the UK. Lots of similarities, except the town planners here havn't thought ahead about traffic etc

Tesco too big for the countryside

Hua Hin Forum

Tesco Lotus

Scams at Tesco

Re: Scams at Tesco

Stressco