Food in the Stores in Thailand

[TotallyOz]

I have spoken to both of my boys and they stocked up on large quantities of food before the stores were emptied. They also bought lots of soda. They both say they are OK and they bought enough of their families as well (what Thai boy would not).

 

However, both said that water was hard to come by in Issan and other parts of Thailand. Have others experienced that? Are the stores in your area running out of items? empty?

[lexusgs]

I have spoken to both of my boys and they stocked up on large quantities of food before the stores were emptied. They also bought lots of soda. They both say they are OK and they bought enough of their families as well (what Thai boy would not).

 

However, both said that water was hard to come by in Issan and other parts of Thailand. Have others experienced that? Are the stores in your area running out of items? empty?

 

I have been on my career break now for a while now in Pattaya. I don't doubt there have been shortages of one or another of eggs, water etc. Personally I have never had any trouble getting hold of any items, in Pattaya at least. Foodland,Villa Market and Friendship always seem to be stocked. 7/11's along with major chains such as Tesco/Big C seem to have more trouble with their distribution channels. That's Pattaya anyway not sure about BKK.

[Guest fountainhall]

I was at TOPS in Silom Complex in Bangkok early this afternoon. Eggs had disappeared for a few days last week, but were back today. I have not seen Singha, Namthip or other local drinking water there for at least a couple of weeks. Occasionally you see some stocks of expensive half-litre bottles of Evian or Vittel at Bt. 38 and 35 respectively, but not every day. The same was true when I last visited TOPS in Central Chidlom a few days ago.

 

There is still a lot of fruit and vegetables, as well as frozen foods, bakery items and some milk and yoghurts, although I reckoned the latter two would be gone within an hour. There is also some beer on the shelves, but not much. A number of staple items like tissues and most toilet paper brands disappeared some time ago now. Most types of cookies have disappeared, and some chocolate brands (no kit-kat )

 

But I got no impression of people raiding the shelves. It seemed just like an average shopping day. What I did notice was a truck on Silom selling pre-packed plastic bottles of water at Bt. 100 each. There seemed to be about 8 in each pack. But I did not recognise the brand, and have heard tales that some entrepreneurs are bottling questionable water - so I'd keep well clear of them.

 

I was in the Sheraton Grande earlier in the week and saw a notice to guests informing them there would only be one bottle of water in the rooms rather than 2.

 

If Central Bangkok does flood - as most are now saying - I wonder where the supplies of drinking water are going to come from. I'm not sure if the main problem lies in bottling plants being closed, or inability to distribute. But it must already be a huge problem in the areas already flooded. We are told tap water remains safe, but tastes slightly different! I do not trust the tap water here, but will end up double-boiling it if there's no other solution.

[bkkguy]

I recently picked up a Turbora stand-alone water filter - plastic, looks like a giant egg, you pour water into the top tank goes through 3-stage filter to bottom tank with tap - the first stage is a ceramic 0.5 micron filter to get rid of disease organisms

 

my tap water in Silom apartment has strong chlorine smell and is sometime quite turbid these days - but after filter no smell, no taste, clear

 

the filter was about 1,200 at HomePro (??) in Wave Place, filters last a year (800 Baht to replace) - beats the hell out of trying to get bottled water all the time! and no installation required!

 

bkkguy

[Guest fountainhall]

the filter was about 1,200 at HomePro (??) in Wave Place, filters last a year (800 Baht to replace)

Many thanks for the info. I'm heading for Home Pro in the morning!

[pong]

CHMai here-Tesco seems to be hit especially bad-their main centers are in the floods. Water-not the clear 1,5 lt bottles, but a big stock of that local 1 ltr thick white plastic. And dozens of those machines-fine enough for me. Some particular items are lacking-but thats more farang wining-a Thai can just go to the market. BTW-most Thai wont stock up at all-unless they still live in prone-to-flood areas. >90% of this country is very, very dry [though there were some rains yesterday eve here-delaying the kratong procession)