7-11 And Mun-nee, Mun-nee, Mun-nee !

A few more fascinating (boring) observations during week one in Bangkok:

In many apartment buildings the elevator only stops on even numbered floors, with the exception of the main floor. When you emerge on to floor ten for example, you then have to walk up or down one flight of stairs if your final destination is floor eleven or nine. Not sure if it is a health and fitness initiative or an attempt to save on elevator wear and tear. Glad we live on floor 24!

There is a 24 hour Value Market on the ground floor of our building. It is a competitor to 7-11 (more on those later) and sells everything including a never ending supply of takeaway Thai meals. When anyone enters the store there is a little bell that rings “ding dong, ding dong”. When I witness the volume of traffic in and out of the store all I can think of when I hear the bell ring is “mun-nee, mun-nee, mun-nee”! A license to print money!

Small motor bikes flourish in Bangkok. They are inexpensive to run, are very quiet and double as a taxi for one. I have already decided I will not be hanging on the the back of a kamikaze driver to save a dollar. Since they are so mobile and agile they often utilize the sidewalks in order to avoid the congestion of the roadways. At night a single headlight bearing down on you as you walk home is a common sight!

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When you first visit Thailand there are two very significant sights that you can see on almost every street. The first is a temple or wat or a Buddhist shrine. They are literally everywhere. They are all usually brightly decorated in gold, flowers, candles, or incense, with statues of Buddha. You know that you are definitely not in Kansas anymore the minute you arrive at the airport. 

The second dominant edifice that you will see in Thailand is a more modern addition also on every street corner decorated in green, white, red and orange stripes and displaying a sign of some kind with a big red numeral “seven” and a sash in the middle with the word “eleven”. The 7-11 store is more common in Thailand than any other business or outlet including McDonalds or Starbucks.

There are 8,334, 7-Eleven stores in Thailand as of 2013, with over 4,150, 7-Eleven stores in Bangkok alone. I am only guessing, but I would venture to say that they outnumber the shrines and temples by a wide margin. The first store opened in 1989 on Patpong Road in Bangkok and now Thailand has the 3rd largest number of 7-Eleven stores after Japan and the United States. According to plans, there will be 10,000 7-Eleven stores by 2018,

Not only can you buy the usual assortment of drinks including Slurpees and Big Gulps, candy, junk food, fast food and ready made meals, but you can also do your banking, pay your bills and if you buy and pay for some airline tickets, they can be picked up to your nearest outlet. 7-11s have become a national institute in Thailand and there does not appear to be any end in sight to their meteoric growth. Dump your Burger King shares and buy 7-11!