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7 Really Annoying Things About Supermarket Shopping in Thailand

Yep, this is one of those posts I'd read and say, “Well if you don't like it go home then”. But come on, I'm English, we need a moan now and again….not to mention that this is the 100th post on The Thailand Life, so I thought something a little tongue in cheek would be somewhat entertaining.

These last couple of weeks have seen me frequent the supermarket far more often than usual. Big C has been my store of choice over my local MaxValue. It's not like I haven't encountered these supermarket annoyances before, but visiting a bigger store in such a concentrated burst has made these things more apparent.

big c supermarket

7 Really Annoying Things About Supermarket Shopping in Thailand

1. Not Walking Up or Down the Travelator

Okay, I know, Thais would argue, “Why bother walking on it? It's designed to carry you up and down, why waste your energy”?

And I get that. But I'd hate to die thinking I wasted days if not months (combined) on a travelator because I was too lazy to put one foot in front of the other.

I find it really hard to stand still on those things, not least because they are so slow it feels like it might never end.

2. Not Using the Queue Separators

Why hold your basket all the way to the front of the queue when you can grab a queue separator and put your stuff on the conveyor belt? It's weird. Do people prefer to hold onto their stuff and lack trust in the belt? Is there something I am missing here?

Moreover, don't put your basket on the belt. Take your shopping out and place it on the belt. Your basket has been all over the floor, which means those germs transfer to the packaging of your food, which you then put in the fridge.

3. Incorrect Receipts

5 receipts and 4 incorrect; that is some record. 3 were in my favour and 1 I was knocked for 60 Baht.

Luckily my mum has always drilled into my head to check receipts. When shopping in Big C never trust the price you see on the shelf, particularly for not so commonly purchased items in the home/hardware section.

4. Snail-Slow Shoppers

The supermarket for many is a day out; everything is there, including restaurants and games for kids. But this encourages aisle slow boating.

I made the mistake of going to Big C at 2pm on a public holiday.

People crawl around at snail's pace, letting the kids run riot and pushing trolleys at 1 mph. And supermarket traffic awareness is about as efficient as it is on the roads. “Jai yen yen, jai yen yen!” (Keep calm – cool head/heart)

5. Enveloping Change with Notes & Receipt

Everyone knows this little pet-hate from 7-11. Please just hand me the notes, wait 1 second while I get a handle on them, and then the change and the receipt; it's logical.

Give me the coins wrapped in a parcel with the receipt and I am likely to drop the coins or have to stuff the package into my pocket as it it because my other hand is holding the bags, which will probably mean losing a note or some coins when I reach into my pocket later on.

6. Sale-Hungry Electronics Section Staff

Ask for help in any other section and you feel like you a have just asked someone to borrow their shoes for the day. Walk into the electronics section and about 30 guys and gals are bending over backwards to help you. I guess this is a commission thing.

I feel like a bitch on heat with all these dudes sniffing behind me for a sale.

7. Look! It's An Alien

By now you probably know that many Thai people tell their kids that if they don't behave – or just for fun –  that the farang will GET THEM! You may also experience a terrified child whose mum is pointing in your direction, saying “A-lieen”…that would be you, the farang!

It's quite common in supermarkets. The first time I had to ask my GF what the joke was as the entire family pointed out my slap head to their child; to which she replied, “He thinks your an alien….this is a Thai joke when you're little…hahahaha”. Cheers….

On the plus side, unlike the UK, Thai supermarkets rarely seem to rotate the location of stock, making everything easy to find once you've memorised the aisles. 🙂

Come on, you know you've got some supermarket complaints! Vent them here….

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  1. I’m in 100% agreement with you on number one. After all, the inclines are so slight on those supermarket travelators (or moving walkways as we call them) that it doesn’t really take any more effort to walk up them than it does to just stand there with your thumb up your @ss. And I find this behavior especially irritating in airports, particularly when the standing people do not move over to one side so that the walking people can get by them. Usually when I get stuck behind a group of people like this on an airport travelator I will get so impatient that I will just jump over the railing with my bags and pass them up before entering the next section of travelator. Why would you just stand there going half of walking speed? You would think that after a 12-hour flight in coach these people would be anxious to stretch their legs a bit by walking around. And how can you be so oblivious to your surroundings, and or, inconsiderate of others as to not leave room for the less lazy among us to get by? And incidentally, I’m pretty sure that those things were designed to get you from point A to point B faster, NOT to give you a rest from walking (at least not in airports). And standing still on one of these things is actually slower than walking without one. Anyway in Thai shopping malls I always take the stairs, if available, rather than risk getting stuck behind stationary people on the travelator.Travelators aside though, I would say that when it comes to shopping in Thailand and other South East Asian countries my biggest pet peeve is the fact that when someone tries to cut in line the cashier will never confront the person and tell him to wait his turn. I was a cashier myself as a teenager and whenever anyone tried to cut in line I either told them to go to the back of the line or I just ignored them and waited on everyone else before them. I’ve never seen a Thai cashier say or do anything about this though. And this of course leaves me stuck having to take care of it myself. In fact, I remember one particular time when I was at McDonalds in Pattaya on a particularly busy day and about 50 people were waiting to have their orders taken. Then suddenly some Pakistani guy pushes his way through the crowd and up to the counter while waving his money in the air. Anyway I just totally lost it and I tore the guy a new @ss hole while making it clear that it would be in his best interest to move to the back of the line. And this was not the only time I have had to do this. Fortunately they always comply though and I’ve never had to actually physically eject someone from a store.I realize that this is not very “Zen” of me and it makes me sound like kind of a hot-head but I’m actually a pretty happy-go-lucky and ultra nice guy and I rarely get angry about anything. There are certain key things however that can REALLY set me off. And one of these things is people who think that the world revolves around them and who have a total lack of regard for anyone else but themselves. And I hate to sound like I’m disparaging an entire race but in my experience its almost always the Pakistanis who are cutting in line (at least I think that’s where they are from) and rarely Thais. And don’t even get me started on some of the things I’ve seen these people do in Japan. Still I never judge individuals based on their group and I’m sure there are many very nice Pakistani people out there in the world who I would be glad to know.
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  2. LOL this is funny to read b/c I am a cashier in Canada. For number 5 .... we are actually taught to hand back the money with the receipt.... lmao. I never do it though. I think that is retarded and have to agree with you. I usually hand them the change first so they can stick it in their coin purse or whatever and then hand the receipt with the bills together.Wait are you an alien b/c of your color or b/c you are bald? Lol that is weird.-Monique
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    • lol, bald? How very dare you...I chose this style! No, yes, I am balding. I think farangs are just alien like because they aren't, or weren't the norm. Well done for handing the change back and not encasing it in the receipt like a small parcel :)
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            • Martin1 - - Wow! It looks like someone has completely forgotten what it’s like to be a kid. The fact of the matter is, parents in pretty much every country on the planet are always trying to scare their kids into behaving (or just scare them in general). Sometimes they are being serious but most of the time it’s all done in fun. And of course, usually the thing or person that the parents use to scare the child is something that the child is already somewhat apprehensive about. For example, if you have a big scary looking neighbor that your kids are already scared of you might tell them in a joking way (or not) that this guy cooks up bad children and eats them for dinner. You might even explain in graphic detail just what horrible things this person or thing does to the kids that he catches. My own father pulled this crap all the time, but it was always done purely in jest.Anyway, when you are part of a homogeneous society, like Japan, or Thailand, foreigners are going to be a very mysterious thing to children. So it only stands to reason that these unknown and mysterious creatures might be the vehicle used to scare kids in the way I mentioned above. And lets face it, these things get passed down from generation to generation and usually got their start way back when there were virtually no non Asians in these countries, and when even adults could go their whole lives without even ever seeing a White person.As for whether or not this is “racist”, well, this would depend entirely on the parent’s intent and his actual attitude toward foreigners. For example, you might know full well that the big “scary” neighbor you used to scare your kids with is actually a very nice guy and you might have nothing against him at all personally. And by this same token, parents in Asian countries who jokingly make foreigners out to be a Boogeyman of sorts to their children also most likely hold no ill will towards those foreigners, nor do they the feel superior to them in any way. They are just telling the same silly stories that their parents told them, and which they know full well are not true.By the way, the definition of racism is as follows: “prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior”. And it seems to me that even a 3-year old child should be able to see that the silliness described above in no way, shape, or form meets the definition of racism.So just why is it that so many people angrily protest that these things are racist when in fact they are not? Well, as I’ve mentioned on here numerous times in the past, its all a matter of these people’s deep-seated insecurities. A person with no insecurities actually cannot be hurt by words at all and he is also not at all easily offended. A very insecure person on the other hand will take offense even when no offense was intended and when no reasonable person would take offense at such a thing.
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            • I concur with Ken. Had I whipped a football out of my bag and rolled it to the kid, no doubt we'd have been running around playing like best of friends within moments and he would quickly forget that I was a 6 ft bald monster . What's funny is that now it is sort of happening in reverse: My daughter sometimes pretends that random Thai men she sees are monsters. She says "Look Dad, there's a monster, quick, run!"
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    • Haha yes, you're getting groceries into the trolley, you try to check the receipt, get the change back into your wallet... then the cashier gives you a thank you 'wei'. I want to wei back but that's just not happening so I give back a nod. 555!
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      • This was me today! My first day in Thailand and I was so excited to show off how polite I could be... then fumbling around with my change and receipt I get the Wei I've prepared for, but my hands were full so I did some sort of smile and nod and awkwardly walked away.. -sigh-
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  3. 8. Computer ShoppingYou can't get close to the merchandise because the monks are all over it. Computers are like sugar to the men in orange.PS. Congratulations on batting your way to a blog century. The Thailand Life is always a pleasure to read.
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