Step back 7-Eleven. What’s really in demand right now is the luxury of trip-less grocery shopping. However, in a country where a futuristic supermarket concept — by which products can be purchased through Google Glass or revolutionary drive-through systems — may be years away, Thais are enjoying their own version of the ultimate convenient shopping experience.
Over the past few decades we’ve benefited from local mobile vendors selling varieties of products — from fresh food and household necessities to fashion items — from the back of pick-up trucks. Merchandise is commonly piled up on the truck’s rear bed, or displayed dangling at the side rails.
And just lately, the trade scale has expanded to a busload.
Capturing countrywide attention is the home-grown business innovation of a man in Wang Thong, Phitsanulok.
The local vendor operates his mobile supermarket from a rundown, 40-seat tourist bus.
With all the seats removed to make way for well-improvised shelves and a cashier counter, he turns the bus into a shop full of merchandise.
Items including toiletries, laundry products, snacks, beverages, canned food and cooking ingredients, as well as plastic buckets and bowls, are neatly organised along the isle inside the bus, cooled by ceiling fans.
Slide-out display extensions and storage, which can be pulled out from the side of the eight-wheeler when the vehicle is parked and tucked in while driving, allow extra shop space.
The bus is usually found driving into villages around nearby districts. Prices are said to be comparable to those of a typical minimart, and the customers are local villagers shunning a commute into town to buy food and other commodities.
The one-man-operated mobile store doesn’t just offer its clients the convenience of doorstep delivery. It also provides heartfelt customer service and geniality, usually hard to find in modern trade situations.
A video clip of the bus was shared on social media by Channel 3 News, on June 9, and has inspired many local merchants while garnering interesting, favourable comments.
Some Facebook users say it’s a new milestone in sustainable trade, even better than online shopping in that it allows customers to physically pick up what they’re interested in.
Many suggest that the man properly develop his own brand, and that it’s time for the monopolising tycoons to be intimidated. A few observers, meanwhile, fear the humble vendor will become another victim of modern trade cruelty, and that his idea will soon be copied by large institutions.
This source first appeared on Bangkok Post Lifestyle.