Frozen food may not sound like a very exciting subject but there are definite opportunities in this sector throughout the Mekong Region. When I first visited, at the end of the last century, it was unusual to find a shop with a frozen food section – there were small areas in supermarkets like Foodland and Villa which catered to the international and aspirational markets but that was about it.
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In all the years I have been coming to Thailand, the Foodland supermarket on Ladprao Road has been open, 24 hours per day, 7 days per week and 365 (or 6) days per year.* So it was this morning as I zipped out to see what was happening in our little part of Bangkok and in the wake of the overnight violence and arson. Of course, people must still work to live around these parts and so most places were open, apart from government offices and banks (the post office was open yesterday, not sure about today). The Big C at Imperial World was open but did not look very busy (I went there yesterday morning and it was also very quiet – there was a story that the Big C at Rajdamri was on fire but, like all these stories over the last couple of days, it is difficult to establish which are true and which not.
Foodland, however, was packed: I of course rarely get to visit supermarkets on weekday mornings but, even so, it seemed to me more busy than expected. Several other farang blokes, looking vaguely uncomfortable in shorts and t-shirts, were buying up stuff and pretending they knew their way around the place; more common were people who were stocking up with basic products – packets of milk, rice, cooking oil, ice and so forth. Foodland is quite a middle-class place and has always positioned itself as an internationalist outlet, with early adoption of frozen food cabinets, for example, which have only very recently appeared in lower cost outlets such as Tesco Lotus (all of which are said to be closed across Bangkok today, following an apparent fire attack against one store). There was no stage or speeches underneath the Ramindra Flyover Bridge as there were yesterday. I did not see any evidence of used tyres, burning or otherwise.
The curfew is due to take effect again tonight from 8-6 and I can imagine the government insisting upon its use as long as possible, just like they have used the State of Emergency provisions as often and as extensively as possible. The critical action now seems likely to be taking place beyond Bangkok, from which it has always been difficult to obtain timely and accurate news.
* If you believe this is not true and you know that Foodland has indeed shut for some period and I did not realise it, then kindly keep it to yourself or else you will spoil the story.
Ladprao 64 