Some fun shopping tips

Shopping Culture in Asia

Of course, everyone likes shopping but no one does shopping like the people of Asia and Southeast Asia. Before starting my trip to Bangkok, I had the opportunity to travel to Hong Kong. Here I saw malls that were 20x more glamorous, expensive, and flashy than any mall I have ever been to in the United States. The food courts were expansive with every type of food imaginable. Even though the stalls, were considered fast food, it was still better than any food court I had over been to. It was incredible. In one mall in Bangkok, called Terminal 21, each floor had a theme. There was a Parisian floor, Japanese, and even had a floor themed San Francisco, my hometown!

Photo of a Foodie Fest going on at Terminal 21.

Food works by using these “coupon” So, how it works is that someone would go and fill their card with a certain amount of baht. I always put about 100 baht minimum which was usually plenty enough, Then someone would go up to whatever food stall they would like to eat at and pay with the credit card. After your meal, you could return your card and receive the rest of the bath you didn’t use or keep it. Some cards, you were only allowed to use it for one day, while some others lasted months. It was hard for me to keep track of all the cards so I usually just redeemed my money at the end.

One of the reasons why people went shopping so much is because of the heat. The heat here in Bangkok can make someone so sweaty. As someone who grew up in San Francisco, I was not used to such temperatures. Even just walking outside for one black, all of us students were dying! We all joked about how cold we’ll be when we return back to UCSD campus. The malls provide protection from the sun and air conditioning. It is such a relief to see a mall while exploring because it's a place that has a public restroom, cold air, and the food is safer here.

Photo of me trying to figure out which fruit to buy!

Negotiating is fierce and necessary to get a good job here. One of the first phrases I tried to learn was, “Can I have a discount” in Thai. Phonetically pronounced, “Nat loi dai mai.’ People in Thailand are very friendly and do not like confrontation so everyone was pretty nice about it. The key to a discount is buying multiple things at the same store. If you buy Two or more items it is considered wholesale so you could save some money. I loved going to stores where everything is about 150 baht. That’s about 5 USD for some really cute shirts. To discount, I would mention that I am a college student and that I was on a budget. People were pretty understanding. I only shopped at stores that had price tags because shop owners could change the price based on how they see you. For example, my friend Alex asked about a shirt and she was quoted 500 baht. She really wanted the shirt so I thought I could ask and get a better deal. Instead, it was the OPPOSITE! The shopkeeper quoted me 1800! Based on how I looked he might have thought that I was richer than my friend. It’s really easy to get ripped off here so only stick to stores that have a price tag and prepare to bargain.

The stores in Bangkok and smaller in the malls and do not allow you to try things on. The sizing here is much much smaller than the US. In the US I am a small and about a size 4 but n Bangkok I was considered an XXL. My friend who is considered a medium in the US was a size XXXL. It is hard to buy shoes above a size 7 or 8 and the sizing is limited. I don’t recommend buying swimsuits or undergarments like bras because you can’t try them on. My friends and I guessed a lot of clothing. When we went home, some of it fit, and some of it didn’t.

Photo of me with a bannana scrunchie

I would classify the malls into three different categories. The first would be malls like Terminal 21 in Bangkok. These are malls that are geared towards foreigners.  Terminal 21 was humongous but everything is in Eglish so you will never get lost. The second I would call malls that are created for local Thai people. These are usually all Thai brands and the people here who are shopping are usually Thai. The last one I would call outdoor markets. There are tons of different markets. Some are only on the weekends.

Trying to figure out what this shirt says.

I would be careful about knock-off shirts because they can have silly phrases on them or sentences that don’t make sense. Before buying something always remember to double check for any spelling errors.

Being weighed down by all my shopping bags. It was heavy!