Cant buy beer at the supermarket in the afternoon?

[dongtan_runner 34]

This sucks. What is the rule for buying beers? There is a certain time that large supermarkets cant sell alcohol? What are those hours? What is the reasoning behind this law?

[MM 6,562]

This sucks. What is the rule for buying beers? There is a certain time that large supermarkets cant sell alcohol? What are those hours? What is the reasoning behind this law?

 

According to Thai law, a licensed liquor store can only sell alcohol between 11 am and 2 pm and 5 pm and midnight.

Thai authorities even announced a bounty back in 2004 for anyone who reports a store violating these hours, to the tune of 30% of the liquor store's fine.

As to reasoning behind this law, who the fuck knows? Something about school kids not getting alcohol after school for the afternoon ban, and from midnight to 11am, so Thais won't get drunk at night and cause trouble, I suppose.

Liquor laws bring out the strangeness in lawmakers.

Look at dry states/counties in the USA and the silly laws they have.

 

 

[doolish 14]

Hi,

Yes, this is the law all over LOS. It can only be bought at certain times of the day in supermarkets and 7-11's. Not sure of the exact times, but i think 1100Hrs to 1400Hrs then from 1700Hrs. You can always get around this, but i would not want you to go against the law. Times will be displayed in supermarkets, in Thai.and English. Also no booze for sale on certain days in LOS.

You can always get a drink in pubs and hotels. It is required for you to use forward planning when these days occur. They are well posted on boards etc..

[CheshireTom 1,377]

Not sure of the exact times, but i think 1100Hrs to 1400Hrs then from 1700Hrs. You can always get around this, but i would not want you to go against the law.

 

My understanding is that you can legally get round it by buying in excess of 10 litres. It's only retail sales, which are defined as being up to 10 litres in one transaction, that are subject to the ban. Over 10 litres is wholesale.

 

I could be totally wrong as I buy my booze at the local duty-free stores and haven't had reason to test it at Tesco.

Edited August 3, 2011 by CheshireTom

[lichtsy 18]

Wait to you encounter an election or Budda day no grog sales at all!!!!!!!

[2 slices short 10]

My understanding is that you can legally get round it by buying in excess of 10 litres. It's only retail sales, which are defined as being up to 10 litres in one transaction, that are subject to the ban. Over 10 litres is wholesale.

 

I could be totally wrong as I buy my booze at the local duty-free stores and haven't had reason to test it at Tesco.

 

Tom, you are correct - in fact that exemption is posted on the sign displaying the legal sale times.

 

For those of you who are interested 2 cartons of beer qualifies as over 10 litres and gets around the times 100% legally.

 

The exemption does not apply on prescribed "no booze" days of which I believe there are 4 in the legislation plus any election days or locally declared "dry" days.

 

Cheers : Admiral Ken

[short 215]

I ran into this problem due to a midnight flight arrival in Bangkok. Masssage girl said that rule didn't apply to department stores, and so I went to Robinsons and was able to buy whatever I wanted.

[Bullfrog 2,224]

In my experience Best Supermarket wine shop by Dolphin roundabout will sell any amount at anytime...except Bhudda and voting days...same same villa market...but Best is best for price..

[SlipSlopSlap 186]

I like everybody else have seen the law in operation, but I'm pretty sure on those nights i wandered back to the loom after 12am and decided i needed in the loom that I was able to get a bottle at the local little grocery mart. I'm talking about those places on beach road down at the soi 2 end. What I'm saying is you can always TRY IT ON and see how go...

 

PS being a booze artist I was amazed at the cheapness of some of the whisky...100 pipers was super cheap in the supermarket and almost exactley the same price in the local mart at (what I think was) 1am...

 

Hiccup.

[jacko 8,578]

I ran into this problem due to a midnight flight arrival in Bangkok. Masssage girl said that rule didn't apply to department stores, and so I went to Robinsons and was able to buy whatever I wanted.

Well the rule applies to BigC, define department store for me!

 

I have managed to buy booze at 7-11 and cases of beer at the wholesale place during restricted hours.

The particular 7-11 was out of town and she sold it right infront of a sign saying she couldn't... Guess it wasn't programmed to block it in the scanner/ receipt software.

[CheshireTom 1,377]

I ran into this problem due to a midnight flight arrival in Bangkok. Masssage girl said that rule didn't apply to department stores, and so I went to Robinsons and was able to buy whatever I wanted.

 

Which Robinson is open after midnight?

[short 215]

Which Robinson is open after midnight?

 

 

Between soi 15 and 19 off of Sukhumvit Rd, Bangkok.

[joekicker 53]

Well the rule applies to BigC, define department store for me!

 

Actually the LAW (not a rule) applies to Thailand, and is both obeyed and enforced like most laws in Thailand.

 

No booze sales and no food service between 2pm and 5pm and from midnight to 5am. These laws may be enforced at any time. They were passed.... well, decreed actually, after the 1971 coup against himself by Thanom Kittikachorn, dictator of the day and two years away from Thailand's first popular uprising. The stated purpose was to instill some of that "shared sacrifice" by all citizens in the big struggles of the country -- sort of like President Obama, and proving there is really nothing new under the sun.

 

Pretty easy target for a "dumb law" diatribe, but then again, aren't almost all of them? Plus of course, like almost all laws, they sit around on the books "just in case" the coppers need something to hang on those breaking it.

 

In recent years, people have JUSTIFIED this 40-year-old law by pointing out all that booze-buying and morals-corruption by young people, and claiming it's a great law because of the fine example and standards it sets for and upon our young people. Enforcement, if I may be permitted that word, is often on the basis of nearness to schools and such, and in fact there were some amendments to the law to mention that. It's true and you know it must be true when you can't make up stupidity like this.

 

My understanding is that you can legally get round it by buying in excess of 10 litres. It's only retail sales, which are defined as being up to 10 litres in one transaction, that are subject to the ban. Over 10 litres is wholesale.

 

Yep. The idea is that big business and transportation has to continue. The weird thing here is that the actual purpose of the law was to shut down pleasureable bars and soup shops and restaurants so that people would REALISE they are "sharing the pain" with the fine, sacrificing armed forces who protect the country. It was meant to inflict popular pain.

 

.

Edited August 4, 2011 by joekicker

[CheshireTom 1,377]

Between soi 15 and 19 off of Sukhumvit Rd, Bangkok.

 

Sorry to contradict you, but it's not.

 

Maybe you're confused with the Tops Supermarket in the basement of the same building. But that screws up your department store angle.

 

 

 

[JohnnyK 28]

Imagine having to go three hours without being able to buy cheap beer and get pissed in your room. The horror! The horror!

[dongtan_runner 34]

Imagine having to go three hours without being able to buy cheap beer and get pissed in your room. The horror! The horror!

that would really suck, johnny canuck...wouldnt it?

[Fondles 94]

 

No booze sales and no food service between 2pm and 5pm and from midnight to 5am.

.

 

No food service as well, first time ive heard that, do you have a link to said law.

[short 215]

Sorry to contradict you, but it's not.

 

Maybe you're confused with the Tops Supermarket in the basement of the same building. But that screws up your department store angle.

 

 

 

 

 

Give me a break!! After spending 30 hours flying and at 2am in the morning, "Tops" and "Robinsons" was just a blur to me. My point was that booze was available from the bigger places.

[joekicker 53]

No food service as well, first time ive heard that, do you have a link to said law.

 

No, never looked for it or tried to document it. And of course there are other laws. When Thaksin's zealous society bender Purachai was setting up "night life zones" in Bangkok various other laws on hours were also written. The laws on night life are worse than the telephone wires on the back sois, although they are more inscrutable.

 

I remember well when it came in, though and several times when it was enforced. It was in the papers a couple or five years ago when Bank Rak police decided to enforce it on a bunch of Japanese tourists enjoying lunch on Patpong Road at 3pm one afternoon. A very quick search on the Thai Law Forum unearths this but no mention of the food thingy:

 

The sale of alcohol in Thailand is banned between 2pm and 5pm and again between midnight and 11am seven days a week. This rule largely affects supermarkets and chain shops, such as 7-11 or Tops. It is common knowledge that the law is not always enforced at smaller, family-run shops.

 

(And of course the last five words are superfluous.)

 

.

Edited August 4, 2011 by joekicker

[CheshireTom 1,377]

Give me a break!! After spending 30 hours flying and at 2am in the morning, "Tops" and "Robinsons" was just a blur to me. My point was that booze was available from the bigger places.

 

And my point is that booze is not available from either Robinson or Tops on lower Sukhumvit at 2am, if for no other reason than Robinson closes at 10 pm and Tops at 11 pm.

 

Maybe you're getting confused with Foodland on Soi 5.

 

 

Edited August 5, 2011 by CheshireTom

[jacko 8,578]

Actually the LAW (not a rule) applies to Thailand, and is both obeyed and enforced

I thought I asked someone to define 'department store' not nit-pick over my use of the word rule rather than law.

Anyone who is intrigued by Joekicker and would like to know more about him, can look up pedantic twat in the Encyclopedia Brittanica, where there is a picture.

[joekicker 53]

I thought I asked someone to define 'department store' not nit-pick over my use of the word rule rather than law.

 

It's not a nitpick at all. There are laws, decree laws, royal decrees, regulations, rules and more. It actually does matter. I'd say, though, for most people it's enough to know if it's currently being enforced, which is why I put that in.

 

.

[short 215]

And my point is that booze is not available from either Robinson or Tops on lower Sukhumvit at 2am, if for no other reason than Robinson closes at 10 pm and Tops at 11 pm.

 

Maybe you're getting confused with Foodland on Soi 5.

 

 

 

Like I said, I was exhausted from the flight. It might have been Foodland. I could have sworn the taxi took me east to it from soi 11 which I was staying on.

[CheshireTom 1,377]

Like I said, I was exhausted from the flight. It might have been Foodland. I could have sworn the taxi took me east to it from soi 11 which I was staying on.

 

Fucking Bangkok taxi drivers! They're all the same! You ask them to take you to Robinson on Soi 19 and they take you to Foodland on Soi 5.

[short 215]

Fucking Bangkok taxi drivers! They're all the same! You ask them to take you to Robinson on Soi 19 and they take you to Foodland on Soi 5.

 

 

He took me to where I could get booze. Thats all I cared. He even helped me with my shopping so I offered him a beer but he said he couldn't drink while on duty.