Amazing Thailand Grand Sale: Shopping made simple
Shop to you drop comes with a 20 to 80% bonus during the annual grand sale.
Terri Roamer
Shopping is not my forte. I flounder when shop assistants start to explain how I can gain an additional 3% discount. They take out a calculator tap in a few figures and proudly show me how much I would save if I spent considerably more than I anticipated when I entered the department store.
Alternatively, they might educate me in the complicated process of gaining an even bigger discount if I bother to trek across the department store’s floor, as far as the eye can see, to a tiny counter to redeem points. Yes, I have thousands of points and I am still wondering how to spend them.
It took me years to work out that I had amassed a small fortune in points on a Bangkok department store’s card so I should have been the most popular person to invite on a shopping expedition.
‘Wow, I didn’t realise you had so many points, you have got a small fortune” my daughter told me over coffee. “We could spend that on a host of goodies.”
Suddenly, I feel more popular, but I am wary.
The logic sails right over my head. Is there anything handed to you on a silver platter? There are no gifts just opportunities to draw you in the shopping web to spend more.
“But there’s a 20% discount on designated items, my daughter explains. “ You cannot lose. Think how much it would have cost us if we had no points at all.”
It all sounds complicated. Whatever happened to the simple clearance sales? Everything has to go, 50% off, points or no points. When the shop was emptied, the owner pulled the shutters down for the last time.
Granted I am the world’s worst shopper, but my enthusiasm always peaks when Thailand announces the imminent arrival of its annual Amazing Grand Sale.
Frankly, shopping should be simple and that is why, mid-June through to the end of August, I buy all my Christmas and New Year presents at the Grand Sale.
I can get my head around signs that boldly announce a straightforward 20 to 80%, with minimum small print conditions and there is comfort in knowing Thailand’s Amazing Grand Sale has been a calendar event for 14 years.
Covering all the top tourist destinations in the country, the sale is just the ticket to clear all my New Year shopping in one swoop and minimise the fiscal stress on my wallet by half. Yes, the promise of 80% off is tempting, but the bottom line is I am a happy shopper if I can tot up all the purchases and there is a net saving of 50%.
No, I am not the original Scrooge berating celebrations or festivals as pure humbug. I just plan all my shopping for birthdays and New Year without waiting for malls to play the Jingle Bells ditty as a reminder there only 30 shopping days to Christmas.
Having concluded all my gift shopping during the annual Grand Sale, I turn into a retailer’s worst nightmare; a couch shopper or window gazer in the run-up to New Year.
I am not alone. There are thousands of visitors who head to Thailand with empty suitcases on the outward trip, July and August. The suitcases quickly fill up with goodies bought at Grand Sale venues in the capital or resort destinations. You can see the happy shoppers trying to check-in for homebound flights weighed down with slim TVs or the latest in golf clubs.
A study on the Indian travel market to Thailand released by Kasikorn Research Centre, earlier this month, noted that Indian travellers love to shop in Thailand and right at the top of their wish list are televisions, cameras and electronic gadgets.
I had never considered TVs as a shopping item when on holiday. However, fuelled by the bank’s research I read up on what is cool in the TV market and discovered all the top brands make their finest TVs right here in Thailand.
So, I put a TV on the top of my Grand Sale shopping list noting in the margin it was for me and not the mother-in-law.
True to form, the Grand Sale discounts on slim smart and desirable TVs were as good as they get at my favourite downtown department store that flags Amazing Thailand Grand Sale bargains.
There were a couple of Indian tourists eyeing a slim, sexy TV to my right so I pretended I was interested in the washing machine to put them off the scent.
As soon as they wandered off to the home theatres section, I moved in, pointed at the slim 32-inch screen and asked, “What’s the discount.”
I had to buy it although I fear the TV is far too smart and if I ever graduate from the manual to experience the wonders of internet TV, it will be a miracle.
But miracles happen in Miracle Year here in Thailand and one of them prompted me to slap down my credit card and walk away with a slim TV tucked under my arm.
It was as light as feather. Then it struck me. The bank was right after all. An Indian tourist could stick this slim-as-a-wafer gadget under their arm and walk it on to a plane as carry- on luggage.
I don’t play golf, but close friends do, which means I need to send them a set of golf balls or wad of discount coupons for Thailand’s top golf courses to ensure they pop over from Europe for their Christmas holidays.
My golf shopping always focuses on Thaniya Plaza. This little Mecca for Japanese businessmen in the heart of Bangkok’s Silom Road district is packed with golf shops.
Actually, the shops spill over into the mall’s aisles due to the sheer volume of goods and gadgets all related to the world’s top sport.
Japanese golfers know this small stretch of Bangkok is the nearest spot on God’s good earth to paradise. They can sip a chilled beer at a Japanese bar and watch sumo wrestling on TV. It is almost compulsory to pop-by a golf shop during the advertising break to check out the bargains. Do they ever get home, or to their hotel, without buying something to improve their game? I doubt it.
That’s it; the attraction of shopping in Thailand is the mesmerising variety and the sheer weight of the bargains, plus the fact come July and August, the annual Amazing Thailand Grand Sale is moving forward at full pelt at stores right on your doorstep at all resort destination in the kingdom.
Thailand’s grand sale covers a vast range of shops, department stores and handicraft enterprises under OTOP (One Tambon One Product) in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, Hua Hin, Samui Island, Hat Yai, and Phuket.
This year, will see the organisers the Tourism Authority of Thailand branching out into the so-called flea markets and wholesale markets such as Bangkok’s MBK and Platinum Mall previously not included in the initiative.
At participating department stores, markets, or OTOP outlets, the discounts can reach as much as 80%, while for every Bt500 spent in cash, shoppers gain a coupon (two if a VISA card is used).
The icing on the cake for foreigner tourists is the chance to win the lucky-draw of a “Miracle 30 Day in Thailand” holiday with every coupon going into the hat.
Well that is getting complicated, possibly because Grand Sale partner Visa Card’s marketing gurus need to create new layers of enticement to tempt us to shop until we drop. I can usually walk out of the shop before the fateful drop.
However, it can be challenging packed to the gills with New Year gifts with just my nose showing above a pyramid of gift-wrapped boxes. Yes, they throw the gift-wrap service in for free even during the Grand Sale.
