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Published: October 7th 2017
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'Sawadeekha, Chern kha', means 'Hello, welcome'. It is the phrase 7-11 cashiers use to greet their customers in Thailand.
In this blog, I am going to write about my growing fondness towards the 24/7 convenience store in Bangkok, particularly the 7-Eleven opposite of my apartment. To begin, I would like talk about my encounters with 7-11 in Malaysia because this is the place where I grew up. 7-11 was never stranger to me back in Malaysia. However its presence are mainly concentrated in the cities or bigger towns. So when the first 7-11 was opened in my hometown, it sort of implied that my town population had grown and I knew that I could call it a big town since then. But, I never like the 7-11 in Malaysia because of the overpriced items in their stores. Its existence is mostly depended on the urgent demand of consumers especially when the supermarkets and the traditional neighbourhood grocery stores are close or yet to open.
In Singapore, there are two 7-11 in my campus. One is next to a mini grocery market and one is among the clusters of residential halls further away from the campus center. Similar with the 7-11 in Malaysia, it survives on the overpriced items. They offers slightly more instant food options than those in Malaysia but it is not what makes people love going to spend their money there.
For people who have visited Bangkok, 7-11 has to be one of places they frequent. We can get all sort of groceries in 7-11 for people of all demographics. If you are a busy white collar worker, you can get your caffeine fixed with a cup of good quality expresso/cappucino comparable to those from street stalls. If you are a midnight truck driver, you can settle your meals from 7-11 when most of the restaurants and street food stalls are closed. If your old grandma needs a knee straps during the cold raining night, you can get one from there too. And the best things are that things are fairly priced and they are always there for you 24/7.
Unlike most of the bored cashiers who work in Malaysia and Singapore's 7-11s, the 7-11 workers in Thailand are always busy with stocking up the shelves and handling payments behind the cash registers. It is one of the differences I have observed in Thailand is sense of ownership of work by the lower class workers. I am not sure how many of them are satisfied with their current jobs but generally I do not see the slothful attitudes shown by most unskilled workers in Malaysia and especially in Singapore.
When I first move in to my new apartment, I was hesitant whether or not to use the refrigerator to store my food. The refrigerator is included in the rent but I need to pay for the electricity it consumes. Since there is a 7-11 just opposite of my place, I can just walk a 30 meter distance whenever I need to get a cold drinks or oven warmed food from there. It is equivalent to a public pantry for the neighbourhood. In there I get to see the people who work and live nearby although I never know who they are personally. It is always well organised and a comfortable shopping experience. When you visit the store so frequently for some period of time, you can recognise the people who work there. If I don't see that cute cashier in the afternoon, they are probably working in the night shift for that week. So I can expect when to see who in the store.
2 weeks ago, there was a blackout in the neighbourhood at 3am. I was new to this place and I was scared and it was too warm to sleep without the fan running. The first place to go I had in mind was the 7-11. It was the very few fully lit building in the area and it ran on emergency power for around 30 minutes. I immediately felt safe when I stepped into the convenience store. Many people who were in their pajamas also escaped their blackout rooms to this fully air conditioned and brightly lit store for comfort snacks.
In marketing class, my lecturer often use Starbucks as the ideal example of 'Third Place'. Third place meaning the place we spend most time at after home and workplace. Now everyone knows that the Starbucks barista are trained to address you by your mispelled name on purpose to make you feel welcome and unique. For me, the limelight in Starbucks is superficially luxurious, I would not get a coffee there unless it is the only place around where I can get an urgent caffeine fix. Starbucks get to earn my money from my urgency, not for my convenience. To me it is equivalent to the 7-11s in Malaysia and Singapore.
The prominence of large chain convenience store is not without my concern. As a student who were active in environmental club, and a common person with a tiny bit of environmental consciousness, I am not very happy with the gigantic amount of single-use plastics in the convenience stores. Worse is when plastic bags are unnecessarily given simply as an act of regard for the customers, even for tiny item such as a 10 baht snacks.
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