Wanderer
Surin Dinosaur
I know I have a bee in my bonnet about the standards in Thai supermarkets, but I did the rounds this morning and thought it was worth passing on a couple of messages.
1) Tesco Lotus - lots of staff employed relaying the counters somewhat but more importantly putting new yellow price labels on the shelves.
Importantly all these prices were higher, and in some cases significantly higher than the previous ones. I watched them for a while.
What is the sense in that?
I'm guessing that this might be a short-term ploy so that when a "now we are CP" day arrives there will be all sorts of supposedly lower price introductory offers.
These things happen.
I went to buy some fresh shrimps because theirs and Makro are the best (plus a stall on the market). But they are now sold sitting in a bath of water instead of on ice. This was the case a couple of days ago as well and I complained to them and made it clear I wasn't buying any and why. Pick a shrimp up and see how much water falls out. That is expensive water.
2) BigC - I bought some shrimps there instead, also in water but I drained them as best I could. Looking at them now, they are rubbish, second grade quality, hence the low price and a lot of water has still come out. This should not happen. I would swear these are cheap market shrimp, Bangkok style, rather than bought from contracted farms.
The range of products in BigC isn't like it used to be in Casino days. More and more different suppliers for the same products, but less of a variety. Prices are lower than the others, but when it comes to their buying of fresh/chilled goods, there is no such thing as a free lunch.
3) Tops - It was just before 10.00am and zero checks again at the entrance.
The 2 frozen turkeys have gone (I wonder??) - but there were now lots of Pukka Pies in the freezer, from UK - however the interest drained when I saw they were all chicken or vegetarian, with no steak pies and such and just their big pork sausage rolls. I bought one of those and it has reminded me why I don't ever buy such things.
There were also the ready to cook whole chickens that Merlin was asking about. Left hand edge of the chill cabinet - big ones and also baby ones, very small. It must be a bit disconcerting to some, to watch those very young ones go down the processing line. I well remember at Birds Eye, donkeys years ago, seeing that all the birds, hanging upside down on shackles, were being stunned dead and bled before thy reached the rollers that took their heads off. And I asked why some seemed to be lifting their heads up just before those rollers.
I also bought a bottle of drinking yoghurt without checking and when putting it in the fridge I realised that again it is already beyond the best before date.
We are not well served in Surin and it is getting worse.
I must start going to Makro again, early morning or evening - otherwise I can't cope with the check-out queueing and delays.
The opportunity for Nookie et al can only be getting greater.
I think it is worth the while we alert each other to good and bad happenings re-food. We do that, but often it is under different headings as a spin-off from something else, and gets missed.
1) Tesco Lotus - lots of staff employed relaying the counters somewhat but more importantly putting new yellow price labels on the shelves.
Importantly all these prices were higher, and in some cases significantly higher than the previous ones. I watched them for a while.
What is the sense in that?
I'm guessing that this might be a short-term ploy so that when a "now we are CP" day arrives there will be all sorts of supposedly lower price introductory offers.
These things happen.
I went to buy some fresh shrimps because theirs and Makro are the best (plus a stall on the market). But they are now sold sitting in a bath of water instead of on ice. This was the case a couple of days ago as well and I complained to them and made it clear I wasn't buying any and why. Pick a shrimp up and see how much water falls out. That is expensive water.
2) BigC - I bought some shrimps there instead, also in water but I drained them as best I could. Looking at them now, they are rubbish, second grade quality, hence the low price and a lot of water has still come out. This should not happen. I would swear these are cheap market shrimp, Bangkok style, rather than bought from contracted farms.
The range of products in BigC isn't like it used to be in Casino days. More and more different suppliers for the same products, but less of a variety. Prices are lower than the others, but when it comes to their buying of fresh/chilled goods, there is no such thing as a free lunch.
3) Tops - It was just before 10.00am and zero checks again at the entrance.
The 2 frozen turkeys have gone (I wonder??) - but there were now lots of Pukka Pies in the freezer, from UK - however the interest drained when I saw they were all chicken or vegetarian, with no steak pies and such and just their big pork sausage rolls. I bought one of those and it has reminded me why I don't ever buy such things.
There were also the ready to cook whole chickens that Merlin was asking about. Left hand edge of the chill cabinet - big ones and also baby ones, very small. It must be a bit disconcerting to some, to watch those very young ones go down the processing line. I well remember at Birds Eye, donkeys years ago, seeing that all the birds, hanging upside down on shackles, were being stunned dead and bled before thy reached the rollers that took their heads off. And I asked why some seemed to be lifting their heads up just before those rollers.
I also bought a bottle of drinking yoghurt without checking and when putting it in the fridge I realised that again it is already beyond the best before date.
We are not well served in Surin and it is getting worse.
I must start going to Makro again, early morning or evening - otherwise I can't cope with the check-out queueing and delays.
The opportunity for Nookie et al can only be getting greater.
I think it is worth the while we alert each other to good and bad happenings re-food. We do that, but often it is under different headings as a spin-off from something else, and gets missed.
Last edited:
