During trips to other countries, it’s always interesting to see what products you can buy at a regular store near your accommodation. Today we’ll find out what you can buy at a Thai supermarket.
THAI SUPERMARKET
A brief overview of a Thai supermarket near home. There’s a lot of interesting stuff there. The whole of Thailand is filled with these 7/11 supermarkets. If you need a quick snack or to buy water/underwear/aspirin – then it’s an indispensable place. If you’re serious about cooking, then it’s practically impossible to do your grocery shopping there.
So. I’ll describe the photos in order.
There’s a shelf with desserts. There are pancakes, mochi, sweet sandwiches, and various cake variations, starting from eclairs and ending with a piece of Black Forest cake. Individual portions. For one person. Everything here is single-serving. In the first photo, there’s a jelly dessert. Ducks with young coconut (the one with the scent of mice and wet dogs). There’s even a Thai version of a potato dessert.
Next, there are burgers. You can take them to go, or you can heat them up in the store. They’ll give you a packet, napkin, and sauces with them. The average price of a burger is $1. There are more expensive and cheaper options. There are fish, beef, shrimp, pork, with rice buns, with chicken steak, with bacon, spicy, with cheese, etc. But they come without vegetables. Just two buns, meat, sauce, etc. There are also various sausages. With cheese, with herbs, smoked, with macaroni, spicy, etc. A couple of types of bologna and chicken sausage.
Next is cosmetics. There’s eyeliner, mascara, and whitening creams for women, and also for men! Yes, yes! Men dye their eyebrows and whiten their faces too. Next are photos of the shelf with vitamins and collagen. They really value collagen here in various forms. There are creams, tablets, capsules, and drinks. Also, there are packets of chewable vitamins, emergency aids for everything, from headaches to hangovers and diarrhea.
There’s a separate shelf for hangover remedies. Various effervescent electrolytes are available, with orange or raspberry flavors. Better than brine. I didn’t take a photo of the shelf with plasters and iodine and the shelf with soap/shampoos; they’re standard. Likewise, there’s a section with laundry detergents and hygiene and cleaning products.
In the bread section, it’s more interesting. Well, there’s no traditional bread. I mean, there is, but only sandwich bread for toasting. But there’s a lot of it. With potatoes, with butter, with cocoa, with various seeds, with vanilla, and classic. Many ready-made sandwiches with sweet mayonnaise and various fillings. And everything has pictures for those who don’t like to read. I have a photo of sandwiches there. Pork-crab, pork-ham, chicken-ham… it’s hard to make a mistake. Pictures everywhere.
Next, there’s a photo of various packages of candies. Everyone loves candies and gummies. There’s simply an endless variety here. Tamarind with chili, mint watermelon, cream with anything you can imagine. A sea of options, in short.
I also didn’t take a photo of the dairy section, but there’s just one name there. Everything is made from powdered milk with different flavorings. Coffee, strawberry, banana. There’s cheese too. Processed for sandwiches. Squares in wrappers. 4 pieces for $2. Standard yogurts in jars. Strawberry, peach, etc. And in the photo, there’s a huge display of products made from milk substitutes. So-called “dairy products.” In blocks. A block of 12 packs costs $2. They’re not bad in taste, by the way. Better than powdered. Next, there are lots of instant noodles. Two huge displays. Just a ton of different ones. They cost next to nothing. Then there are refrigerators with drinks. There’s beer, various cocktails, kombucha, about 30 types of energy drinks, different collagen drinks, then classics like cola/fanta/sprite, and water. About 50-60 types. With various vitamins, for hangovers, with or without gas. Loads of options.
Then there are nuts. Oh, they love snacks here. I didn’t bother taking photos of chips, but there are as many of them as there are instant noodles. Also, packs of crispy fried chicken skin with different flavors. There are various types of nuts too. Almost anything you can imagine. Next, sunflower seeds. Any kind of seeds are popular here too. Sunflower seeds are available as well. There are honey-flavored, pepper-flavored, coconut-flavored (possibly young coconut, but I’m not sure), and roasted in sesame oil. Then, there are many varieties of dried fish. After that, there’s ready-to-eat food. Well, there aren’t many options here. Rice + …… Or noodles + …… Mostly rice, but there are also soups. Tom Yum, for example, is excellent. But there’s not much. You can take it with you for about $1.5, and they can heat it up for you there. They’ll even give you a spoon to go with it.
Eggs deserve special attention. I didn’t take a photo of the regular display, but on the chilled shelves, there are eggs boiled, raw, and soaked in black liquid. Then there’s the frozen section. There are ready meals, individual portions of ice cream, frozen meats, and french fries for one person. It’s all single servings. Next, there are vegetables and fruits. Sets for Thai soups, packs of 5 cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, greens, ready-made vegetable salads. Sliced fruits, sometimes whole ones. Bananas. And to wrap up, there’s a shelf with collagen in jars, chicken broth extract, disposable bird’s nests (don’t ask), various power vitamins…
This is just a standard-sized store. In Bangkok, there are huge ones! They even have potatoes and you can buy a whole watermelon.
The frame didn’t include stands with contact lenses, refrigerators with ice cream, a stand with hot dogs and a la carte sandwiches, shelves of alcohol and cigarettes by the cash register, stands with slippers, T-shirts, and tank tops, toys for kids, device chargers, disposable tableware, balance recharge cards for anything, including Netflix.
