The tailor shop mystery . . .

[OCgringo]

Logic in Thailand ????

Logic in India ?????

 

Thailand x India divided by falang + beer = more questions

 

Walk into one of the Tailors and ask them

 

OC

happy quanza

[ThaiHome]

The Asian business model has confounded westerners for hundreds of years now. Good thing it is useless, otherwise they would be on the verge of being the major force in world trade.

TH

 

[Weird]

Running a tailor shop isn't exactly expensive.

[Khun004]

When I visited here in 2001 there were WAY more internet cafes, the market didn't bear enough customers so one by one they dried up.....Why don't the tailors disappear?

There, in a nutshell, is an excellent perspective on the question.

 

In almost three years living in Thailand, I've used two tailor shops.

One is Indian-owned, the other Thai-Chinese.

 

The Thai-Chinese shop has no touts, no special package promotion on a sign out front, and nobody seems to live above the shop.

The lighting is modest, but sufficient (electric rates are high in Thailand).

The decor is pleasant, but very modest.

The shop has been in the same location for years, there's lots of dust in the corners.

It is, clearly, a neighborhood shop surviving on local trade.

 

At the Indian shop, the family does live above.

Sometimes I pass the owner or his wife walking somewhere in the soi.

Sometimes I pass the Indian kids walking on their way to school, an expensive, private school nearby.

In fact, the Indian owner and his wife belong to the same health club that I do, and I sometimes see them there:

He does a workout while she goes to the yoga class.

 

Hey, wait a minute!

It's an expensive health club.

How can this tiny tailor shop, owned by a family with three, school-age children, enrolled in expensive private school, also afford membership at an expensive health club?

 

The sign outside that shop offers, "1 suit, 1 pair of pants, 2 shirts, 2 ties" for US$109.

(Last year the amount on the sign was $99.)

How many of those suit packages do they have to sell to pay for family membership at the health club and school tuition for the kids?

 

I walk past that shop virtually every day.

Sometimes two or three times a day.

I've made it a point to glance in.

The beauty salon next door, the travel agency on the other side, the restaurant one down from there, and the foot massage shop, all have customers coming and going as you would expect.

But, 98% of the time, the tailor shop is empty.

The mystery continues ...

 

Well, one thing is becoming clear:

Normally, on forums like this one, we have at least one person who knows something about each question asked.

So far, on this question, some very helpful clues, but no clear answers.

 

My tentative conclusion is that tailor shops are "fronts" for something else.

And, that "front" business finds it useful to have many small showrooms, scattered throughout the tourist areas, with bright lights (expensive) and attractive decor (costly), along with many bolts of cloth on display (also costly).

Another factor is lots of deliveries -- with moto-cys coming and going to deliver and pickup.

There must be something behind the scenes of the tailor shops, but what?

 

Maybe we'll just never know.

[Khun_Kong]

I sit at Lucky Lukes many nights of each week for an hour or two, maybe arriving 5,6 7 o'clock or so.

 

There is an Indian tailor shop located adjacent to Lucky Luke's. It's the big, flashy one to the right of Nana Plaza as you enter NEP. During that 1-2 hours, there is almost always a delivery man leaving the back door of the shop, headed for his motorbike parked in Nana behind the shop, carrying 1-3 suits (usually 1) in garment bags. So that would be at least 30 suits/month, just going by the short time that I sit there.

 

On the days when I sit at Big Dog's, I can see the front doors of the shop. I still see the same guy leave with suits - but I've never seen a customer enter or leave the shop.

 

In general, I'm amazed at the number of businesses, especially bars, that manage to survive, even though you might see only 3-5 customers in there at any one time. 2 case studies:

 

1. My GF's hair salon. She can make an attractive salary, for Thais, with 7-8 customers a day (500-600 baht/day gross). Extremely low overhead ($2-3 USD/day)

 

2. One of the owners of Big Mango told me that Cascades, the big LB bar, doesn't have many customers, but manages to average 40 barfines per night!! Indeed, sitting at Lucky Luke's, it appears that many of the "girls" just drop in to pick-up tips or something and are headed across to Nana Hotel or somewhere without even changing clothes for the night.

 

[Weird]

I think you're making a bigger deal out of running a tailor shop then there is.

 

"And, that "front" business finds it useful to have many small showrooms, scattered throughout the tourist areas, with bright lights (expensive) and attractive decor (costly), along with many bolts of cloth on display (also costly)."

 

Most of the costs are 1 time and things like the bolts of cloth can be transfered between stores so there really isn't a loss of money by having it sit there instead of in a storage room behind some other tailor shop.