There is no need to think that the day is coming when supermarkets in Thailand will have lured so many customers away from smaller general-purpose stores that they all go out of business. The variety of goods sold in supermarkets and general stores are different, as are the customers who visit them.
Supermarkets sell basic goods and supplies for everyday living — soap, toothpaste, vegetable oil for cooking, noodles, coffee, sugar, rice, seasonings, fresh ingredients of all kinds, and seasonings, among other products. Customers shop quickly, choose what they want in the price range they prefer, and pay at the checkout. If the supermarket is in a city, many of the customers are likely to be office workers.
Small general stores, on the other hand, offer household goods used by less affluent people such as aluminium pots, iron woks, ceramic or stone mortars and pestles, cutting boards made from tamarind wood, plastic buckets and aluminium colanders for washing vegetables. In addition to items of this kind, which are usually low priced, they sell equipment used by professional cooks.
These stores are often like warehouses stocked with old-fashioned implements and equipment that some of their customers still like to use. And most important of all, in shops like these, the owners still talk with and deal personally with their customers. Buyers are allowed to bargain down prices, and the owner can offer recommendations, making for a shopping experience very different from that in a supermarket.
Today I would like to take a look at one general store at Ban Pong in Ratchaburi. Called Tang Seng Kee it is owned by Srirat Hiranphiboon, who is 80 years old. An immigrant from China, she first arrived in Bangkok wondering what her future would hold. She took a boat to Ratchaburi, where she met and married a Chinese merchant, after which the couple moved to a location close to the Ban Pong pier, the area where the shop stands now.
GOING POTTY: General store owner Srirat Hiranphiboon with enamelled cookware from Sweden.
They initially started selling areca palm nuts for betel chewers in a nipa palm shophouse near the pier. As business improved they occupied a wooden shop and expanded their offerings to include cloth. Eventually the business grew to be a general store. After they lost their store to fire twice, they moved to their present shophouse 62 years ago.
Tang Seng Kee sells household goods of all kinds, which are ordered from Bangkok. The first generation of many of these items were made of brass, and included trays, water bowls, spoons and forks.
In addition to home kitchen items the store also sold products for commercial food businesses such as noodle cookers and old-style coffee brewers that were also made of brass. Insulated bottles and jugs for hot water, kettles, teapots and curry bowls were imported from China.
The second generation of these household items were made of enamelled, galvanised iron. The first to take hold in Thailand came from Sweden, meaning they were not cheap, but soon found favour in Thailand due to their high quality. Once they had become popular, enamelled ware was also imported from China and Japan.
With general acceptance of enamelled household items Bangkok-based companies began manufacturing and marketing them under brand names such as Kratai (rabbit) and Jorakhay (crocodile). These included plates and platters, spoons and white basins of all sizes for washing clothes. Interestingly, when these basins had been used so often that the bottoms were worn through they were often given a second life as grills for sticky rice patties or bananas.
When aluminium ware appeared, pots, woks, spatulas and steamers made of the metal caught on and buyers soon switched over. This even occurred with larger items such as noodle cookers and sticky rice steamers. Enamelled products continued to be used, but less often. Certain products did resist this trend. Portable stacks of food container bowls called pinto were still made of enamelled iron and remained standard in every home for Buddhist ordination ceremonies. Monks preferred enamelled galvanised pinto over other types of food containers.
Over time the age of aluminium soon began to fade giving way to household items made of plastic and stainless steel. General stores have adapted to these changes, stocking equipment required for a range of household and specialised commercial uses. This meant very large aluminium pots for curry shops, steamers and oversized woks for caterers, big soup pots for noodle shops, steam pots for making khao kriab paak maw (a very thin, filled, rice-flour steamed pancake), large sticky rice steamers, grills and large-sized ceramic mortars for making laab (minced meat salad) or nam toke (Isan-style spicy meat salad with mint).
Mrs Srirat said many that housekeepers don’t always like to use modern equipment. “Some prefer to use old-fashioned implements and kitchen apparatus from earlier times,” she said. “Enamelled kitchenware pieces like trays decorated with Chinese-style designs on them are still used for making religious offerings, and enamelled pots, cups and plates of all sizes still have users.
“I still keep some of the Swedish enamelware on hand. Some prefer it as the quality is better than the ones that come from China and Japan, or those that are made in Thailand. I will sell these although they are a little expensive.
“But if there are only a couple of pieces left, I won’t sell them. I still hold onto an old kettle of the kind used during World War II, for example.”
Usually these general stores don’t look especially glamorous, and often appear overstuffed and cluttered, with goods set about wherever they may fit rather than arranged into attractive displays. But they can be treasure troves of once-familiar items from earlier times, fascinating to visitors with a bent for social history.
Interested customers might want to spend time learning about their history from the owner. It is a very different experience from that of shopping in a supermarket, where efficiency is the main point. There is time, and room, in everyday life for both supermarkets and general stores.
This source first appeared on Bangkok Post Lifestyle.