There’s an institution in Thailand that is revered by the population. An establishment woven into the urban and rural communities alike, serving the people 24 hours a day. That’s right it’s a convenience store, 7-11.
If you’ve never visited Thailand then it may be difficult to picture but 7-11 is truly the backbone of every day life in the land of smiles. When I say it is everywhere I mean it. Every street corner of every town. You can pass 3 or 4 of them in the space of a hundred yards. You see them standing opposite each other on busy streets, like some kind of bizarre symmetrical convenience store illusion. They are located in all sorts of places as well, city streets, small villages, motorway services, shopping malls, airports, I’ve even seen one in a hotel before. If you visit Thailand I guarantee they will soon become a familiar friend to you.
7-11 started life in 1920’s America, went through puberty in Japan but fully matured and is flourishing in Thailand. The South East Asian country is home to nearly 13,000 shops working out at 1 store for every 5,500 residents!
For a start when you are pounding the streets of Bangkok sweating quicker than you can drink, you are going to welcome the sight of the red, green and orange 7 with open dripping wet arms. The aircon of 7-11 is like being in the Swiss Alps on a fresh October morning. Many a time when we are out and about we dip into one for some respite. Not to buy anything, just to stand there and enjoy the cool climate. Sometimes even opening the beer fridge just to get an extra icy blast if it’s a particular scorcher of a day. What’s more the staff don’t care. Hell, even street dogs live their entire lives at 7-11’s, it’s a known thing here. If your a dog and have a spot at a local 7-11 then your living the high life. You get fed many times a day by the locals who frequent the shop, you get some well needed love and attention from the myriad of passers by and I’ve even seen dogs who are welcome to take shelter inside when it’s raining. 7-11 is truly for everyone.
When you first walk through those doors into the crisp cool air you are greeted with a chorus of ‘Sawadee Krap’ (hello) and enough beeps to make you think your at some kind of retro gaming convention. I don’t know how the staff manage it. Firstly the ear splitting beeps that go off every time the door opens are just crazy. Those doors are going non-stop 24-7 such is the footfall in most 7-11’s. Next I don’t know how they manage to stay so happy. The greeting is genuinely chirpy and welcoming from staff who are clearly trained in the dark arts of Jedi-esque till and service skills. They can be preparing a hot toasty or maybe a fresh pizza with an iced coffee at the same time as the beep goes subliminally into their brain triggering an uncontrollable ‘Sawadee Krap’ response. It’s impressive stuff.
Given the relatively recent change in Thai laws regarding marijuana these shops are also great for people watching. It was already fun anyway, particularly in places like Bangkok where there is a steady stream of lady boys tottering around in their heels with a deep fried locust hanging out their mouth buying energy drinks. Now, that is combined with red-eyed stoners drooling over instant burgers and 10p bars of chocolate. The staff cope with this admirably though. They go about their job effortlessly despite the pressure of hundreds if not thousands of customers per hour. Like customer service monks they never appear flustered or irate. They are calm, relaxed and above all extremely friendly.
The staff in the uber-busy ones in Bangkok deserve a special mention hence the title of this post. These guys are next level when it comes to serving a wide spectrum of punters in what has to be some of the busiest shops in the world when it comes to footfall per square metre. From drunk foreigners to cockroach eating stoners these staff never miss a beat, they just crack on at their own merry pace amidst the chaos that is a Bangkok 7-11 and all with a beautiful smile.
It is most likely my favourite shop in the world. It has everything you could possibly want. Phone chargers, phones themselves, clothes, toys for the kids, medicines, collagen by the bucketful, cleaning products, fresh veg, an array of meats as good as a butchers, it’s truly a mini supermarket. Half of the shop is hidden from sight. Like some smoke and mirrors film set there is a huge team of ‘off set’ staff who keep everything stocked and running smoothly. It’s funny at times. You go in the fridge to grab a water or one of about 200 different soft drinks on offer and you can hear them laughing and chatting away. You grab your bottle from the angled slidey shelf and within a nano second someone has back filled that bottle of water. You decide you want something else instead and you are unable to replace your bottle back on the shelf as it’s now full again. What this does is allow each shop to carry a ridiculous amount of products. You go into 7-11 in Malaysia and it’s 3 rows of the same instant noodles and bags of crisps. Thai 7-11’s have a small amount of each item on the shelves that they replenish in real time meaning they can carry a crazy amount of products.
You go to grab a snack in 7-11 and it’s an impressive line-up ranging from salad bowls to gourmet pastas and sushi. Fresh pizza is available from their micro-oven behind the till. They even bring out freshly cooked full meals from some magic hidden kitchen. Freshly made chicken with basil or maybe a fried rice with chilli pork. There’s usually a small seating area in most of them and you can sometimes see entire families or couples sitting down having their evening meal at the local convenience store. The food itself is great and if you wanted to you could eat every meal at 7-11 for a few months and still not have tried everything they offer. The other great thing is price. The meals are as cheap as any of the street food you will find outside. I really like the fact that the two airports in Bangkok have a 7-11 each. They charge a fraction more than the other 7-11 shops outside the airport, literally pennies more. You can grab a coffee and a double pork burger with cheese for about £2. Maybe a beer and some sushi for £2.20. It’s exactly how airports should be as families on a budget should be able to feed their kids at an airport without needing to take out a payday loan.
I genuinely can’t imagine what life in Thailand would be like without these shops, seriously. If all the 7-11’s disappeared tomorrow I think the country would literally grind to a halt. People wouldn’t know what to do, normal life would cease to exist and there would be mass protests in the streets until normality was returned. It is truly a part of Thai culture engrained into the fabric of their society and it’s magnificent, I love it.
If you come to Thailand you too will appreciate the 7-11 Allstars and all they have to offer. It’s a great tourist attraction in itself and how it’s not in the top 10 things to do on Tripdvisor is beyond me.
