Ding Dong, Welcome

Ding Dong, Sawadeeka, Welcome. This is the typical sound when you enter any 7-11 store in Thailand. Ok, I admit, I need to get myself a life.  Last week's blog entry dealt with someone whose name I couldn't pronounce sweeping the street in front of our house, and this week I’m down to dedicating a whole blogpost to the 7 Eleven stores in Thailand. I apologize. I promise that eventually I will pull my brain out of this intellectual slump and get back to blogging my inner deepest thoughts relating to other serious stuff like attaining global peace or eradicating world hunger. For now please bear with me while I ramble on about Fred's sweeping and 7-Eleven stores. Truth be known, 7-Eleven stores have become a substantial part of my daily life here in Thailand. 

7-11 would not be 7-11 without the Slurpee

First of all, it doesn’t take much time to be amazed at how many stores there are here. There are over 8,000 7-Eleven convenience stores in Thailand, of which half are in Bangkok! Actually, Japan is the largest market with 17,569 stores, the US of A ranks second with 8,424 locations, (but I'm sure this will change once their new president puts in motion his carefully considered and well-though-out plan of making America great again) followed closely by Thailand and South Korea with 8,334 and 7,327 stores, respectively. And the company keeps growing, with a brand new store opening somewhere in the world every two hours of every day. Now guys, you can thank me later for this bit of interesting intel which you will undoubtedly store into your personal trivial-pursuit-data-base and from which you can retrieve at a second's notice during one of those awkward silent moments at the dinner table when your spouse/sweetheart/wife says something like, 'dear, why is it that we don't talk like we used to?'. 

Really, the density of these stores in the Thai capital is amazing. Wherever you are in Bangkok you will find a 7-Eleven store nearby and you will find one within a 5 minute walk from anywhere. Instant gratification when you have one of those Slurpee urges. We go by two of them on our way to school when we walk (15 minute walk), and at least 7 of them when we drive to school.

7-Eleven has become part of the daily Thai life, for everyone, Thais as well as us farangs. It definitely has become part of our daily lives. We go to our neighbourhood 7-Eleven store(s) to pay our bills (water, electricity, tv, internet), tap up our phones, pay for our flights, get tickets to shows and concerts, retrieve and deposit money from our bank's ATM, and occasionally to buy milk when we run out on Sunday mornings. Back in Canada, way back when, the only time I stepped foot into a 7-Eleven, it was either to buy Tylenol in the middle of the night, buy a Slurpee in the dead of those sweltering hot summers, or to get a few bucks off that ski lift ticket in Whistler.  

Chang beer and Lays seaweed chips

So what do they sell at 7-11's here in Thailand that makes them an essential 'go to place'? Everything, well very nearly everything, depending on the time of day. First of all, you will pretty well find the same sundries as you would get in a store back home, but with a somewhat south-east Asian flair to some of the stuff.  Take chips as example.  Lay’s is available pretty much everywhere in the world. In Thailand, however, the number of flavours is amplified manifold. As far as food goes here in South-East Asia, two things one needs to remember, 1- when it comes to spicing up foods here, they sure don't mess around, and, 2- the weirder the food is, the more edible it is. Anyways, back to the chips...beyond your standard sour cream or barbecue flavours, you will see unique tastes such as nori seaweed, roasted chicken, honey butter and salmon. Mmmm good...Not! Another popular flavour is Miang Kham, a Thai vegetarian snack comprised primarily of garlic, lime, dried shrimps and chillis. I guess it's an acquired taste. There is a vast variety you can choose from, but you can be sure that – no matter what you choose – each chip will pack a crunchy punch of bold spices and start a guaranteed piquant party-arty in your mouth. You have a sudden urge for fancy tom yum, tempura or grilled-squid flavoured seaweed? No problemo, Tao Kae Noi’s got you covered. And then there's beer, cheap beer, cheap ice-cold beer.  Although, if it's beer you want, one needs to be aware that stores in Thailand (all stores, no exception) are not allowed to sell alcohol between 2pm - 5pm. The morning ban I can understand, but I haven't quite gotten the reasoning behind the afternoon one. Someone once told me that afternoon selling of alcohol ban was put in place to discourage students from purchasing right after they've left school. Don't know for sure.    

It is actually very difficult not to visit a 7-11 while traveling in Thailand! For us, these convenient stores represent an air-conditioned oasis that helps us survive a day in the happy hot chaos of Bangkok. On more than one occasion, when walking around in sweltering Bangkok heat, we have taken refuge in one of these stores to avoid heat strokes or exhaustion. 7-Eleven, our 24 hours a day, 7 days a week trustworthy and indispensable harborage for food, drinks, snacks and cool air. Ding Dong...Welcome.

Click for the 7-Eleven welcome