Today myself and Palini took three bus rides to Surin city we poped into Big C for a few farang essentials i.e a nice bottle of Monte Clare red wine, at the check out the girl refused to put the wine through the scanner.
My wife looked at me and i said " tell her thanks for the compliment but i am a little over 18" the girl told my wife that she is not allowed to sale alcohol untill 5.00pm.
So this 2 till 5 not serving the nectar is really taking off any more info guys, i think they really are trying to hurt bars and restaurants and a farang in the sticks.
Kendo.
Is Bangkok a place or a nasty injury.......Eric Morcombe.
I don't think they are trying to hurt a Farang! I think that is placing a little too much importance on either you or I!
The law is the law (everyone's countries has annoying laws, some enforced, others not).
Honestly, I think its OK to see these laws enforced. The more they try to enforce the trivial, the more likely that they will feel the motivation to enforce more meangful laws.
However, I do understand your annoyance, I forget many times about this law, which I know is well enforced throughout Bangkok, Samut Prakarn, Hua Hin and I'm sure other places, in the major outlets.
In my experience the big outlets countrywide will not sell during the banned hours although certain 711's (soi 80 in HH, soi 7 in BK) do it under the counter and ring it up later
Best bet is to stock up at home and use Mom and Pop shops locally in banned hours. They will always sell it if they have got it
RICHARD OF LOXLEY
It’s none of my business what people say and think of me. I am what I am and do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. It makes life so much easier.
As Lomu says, it's been in place a few years and it's damned annoying.
We've got used to it and usually buy our supplies from Macro (a couple of cases of Chang and whatever else needs refreshing in the drinks cupboard...). However, we found ourselves in Tescos in Nakhon Pathom the other day around 3.30 and decided to stock up from their booze department - we've done it before at the around the same time. Imagine our horror and frustration when the spikey-haired lesbian told us we couldn't buy any amount of alcohol! We both smiled and pointed to the sign (in Thai and English) that if you buy more than 10 litres (which we were trying to do) then it was OK. She wasn't having any of it. She gave us that 'Stupid farang don't know Thai laws' look and decided to ring someone. She told us to wait. So we did. She chatted to the 'someone', served a couple of customers paying bills, didn't look at us, and then put the phone down. She still didn't look at us or say anything. So Mr.VS put the boxes back on the shelf and we left.
Stopped off in Macro on the way home. No problem. Should've gone there in the first place as the veggies are much fresher and the staff are a billion times more polite.
VS
"Properly trained, man can be a dog's best friend"
richard wrote:In my experience the big outlets countrywide will not sell during the banned hours although certain 711's (soi 80 in HH, soi 7 in BK) do it under the counter and ring it up later
Best bet is to stock up at home and use Mom and Pop shops locally in banned hours. They will always sell it if they have got it
That's pretty much my experience, go for a big shop at Tesco can't buy it. Get back home and nip to the local shop and there's never going to be a problem.
We had the same problem with Tesco at MV, we had a trolleyful of stuff including beers and wine, we got to our place at the checkout 2 minutes before 2pm, the girl then proceeded to fiddle with her cash tray by which time it was just on 2pm. She refused to checkout the alcohol, so we just left everything on the conveyor belt and walked out. Cutting off noses I know, but it made us feel better, plus we got what we wanted at Villa Market with no problems at all.
I believe all the Family Mart's in Hua Hin sell alcohol 24 hours a day
Not sure if there's any of them up in your area Kendo, but looks like me and Adj will be introducing you to ours shortly, if this early closing stays in place for the full 2 weeks
In the bigger stores like Big C and the franchise places like 7-11, the cash registers are pre-programmed to reject any alcohol sales during the restricted times. This is why if you go to the register at two minutes to ground zero, chances are that you're not going to make it.
The mom-and-pop stores do not have such restrictions programmed into their registers, so can ring up a sale. It's just a question of whether they will take the risk or not. I've bought beers from my local during no-sale days, they wrap the beers up in newspaper so they can't be seen. Note that they will do this only if you're a regular or known customer.
As has been stated before, the law is the law. Be prepared for it and be thankful when some sales people do sidestep it when they can.
Happy hours work in a similar fashion. You either make it in time or miss the slot.
All the Thai and Chinese stores sell booze any time as well as Villa Market (I don't know how they get around the law). There is a Chinese shop on Chomsin road that has a pretty good liquor inventory and one in the middle of Takiab as well. The Cathay wholesale liquor store on Sa Song road across from All In Hua Hin also sells anything at any hour, so it's not really a problem in Hua Hin.
My brain is like an Internet browser; 12 tabs are open and 5 of them are not responding, there's a GIF playing in an endless loop,... and where is that annoying music coming from?
