Skim the farang at Carrefour

[Paillote]

For a couple of years I have mostly walked past the very fashionable supermarket Marketplace in President Park (Suk 24), and mostly not bothered with Villa market. Instead I have strolled down to Carrefour in the belief that this would save me a couple of baths given the Carrefour low cost image.

 

Well, yesterday I did my usual shopping, but could not find any Taco shells, so I later popped into Marketplace. Had no Taco shells there either, so my quest continued to Villa market. Anyway, as I was browsing the shelves for mentioned Taco shells, I had the prices at Carrefour fresh in mind. To my big surprise I noticed that typical goods only bought by farangs were much more expensive at Carrefour. Granted, my selection of products is not big, but since every product I remembered the price of showed the same trend, I am quite sure that this the policy of Carrefour is to compete on price for Thai consumers, and scam the farangs. I will be avoiding Carrefour here after.

 

Examples:

 

Danish canned ham: 87B Marketplace, 106B Carrefour 22% difference

Belucky Bacon: 85B Marketplace - 105B Carrefour 23% difference

Minced beef: 120B Villa, 260B Carrefour 116% difference (!!!)

Steaks: Starting at 450B/Kg at Carrefour. Starting at 200B at Villa

 

In addition there are several products that I don’t remember the exact prices for, but which I am quite sure comes out with much higher prices at Carrefour. That includes cheese and various imported chowders and spices.

 

Paillote

[Neo]

Good to know. How much for lutefisk?

[Redbaron]

That includes cheese and various imported chowders and spices.

 

Carew would be the man to see about cheeses. He's down Pattaya way from what I gather. Real guru on the topic.

[Nervous_Dog]

I too have noiced this, CornFlakes is cheaper, however we usually shop at Big C, Villa is cheaper than them too

 

DOG

[Guest]

Interesting. I never noticed this before. A couple of possibilities:

 

- Because Carrefour is larger and has better controls in place, it has a more a sophisticated pricing mechanism, and therefore recognizes that this sort of price discrimination is viable in the Thai market place?

 

- Because Villa and Marketplace cater more to Farangs, they buy more of these products than Carrefour? (This one doesn't seem likely to me.)

 

In any event, I seriously doubt that this is driven by anti-Farang sentiment. For an operation like Carrefour, it is presumably strictly business.

[Guest]

Interesting that you mention this, as I have alsways Villa to be one of the most expensive supermarkets in town. IMO the best overall deal is found a Foodland.

 

The major chains like Carrefour are quite clever and ingenious to attract shoppers. All these kind of stores (Lotus, Carrefour and BC) use slogan smiliar to "low price guarantee". In theory, if you can prove that an article is cheaper elsewhere you can return and claim the difference. Shoppers of course hardly take note and even if, can't be bothered to return. The big stores know this and play on this.

 

The low price guarantee actually covers certain items in the store. These may change from month to month, but in general around 200 items will be price below normal market value just to attract shoppers. Knowing that most will not come for just those items alone, they ensure that they make money on other purchases.

Certain items (like sugar, cooking oil etc) have fixed prices. Prices for such items will be same everywhere.

 

Then there is the store psychologist. This is a persons who determines what item stands where in the store. He basically dertimes what the shopper notices first, second etc. Not a general rule, but usually those items eye-high are those with the best margins for the store. The same often applies to those items close to the entry point, or at the cashier. Then you hve the impulsive buy items and the compulsary buy items. Compulsary items are those that the store knows you have come the buy on purpose. The impulsive ones that usually non-essential goods that one buys just becomes one happens to come accross. This is why you always find sweets etc. at the cashier.

 

Villa doesn't IMO have such an advanced pricing policy. But I know for a fact that some items are much much more expensive at villa than at say foodland. If you truly want to save money each week, you buy the "special offers" only at Lotus, Carrefour, Tops and Big C, and then the rest at villa of foodland (after price comparison).

 

You compare a.o. steak prices. You can only do that if you know that the meat has the same origin. In Thailand you have already 2 or 3 types of cow meat, of which the kilo price varies greatly. Then there is the imported stuff from New Zeeland, Australia and the US. So what did you compare really. The lowest price for steak meat at carrefour starts at around 200 baht per kilo. But the so called Pen Fed beaf at Foodland is 350 - 450 baht per kilo, and at villa usually aorund 100 baht per kilo higher.