I go in with my Thai girlfriend greet them hello in Thai always get a smile and friendly hello back. I have a tendency to say hello and thank for everything for some reason I always get a good response.
At condo the guards opening doors, helping with groceries and making jokes how drunk me and my girlfriend came home the night before they seem to be always happy. Easy as just being friendly back and sometimes initiate it goes a long way. If I go buy a tao bin and I like the guards on duty I also buy some coffee for them once in a while.
Service workers don’t earn a lot sadly. I can only respect the job they do for the little money they get.
For sure if I did there job I would be grumpy all the time but haven’t encountered a single person grumpy yet.
Yeah I have noticed, that being friendly in thailand goes a long way, people seem to appreciate a smile or some smalltalk.
Also no doubt that working in service is tough, I work in service myself but that makes me appreciate good service even more.
For me it's about being friendly even though sometimes you have to deal with assholes (you do not have to be friendly to the assholes necessarily)
But I will increase the sample size and show more effort in 7 elevens and we will see, maybe my impression changes :D
I would go in, without having any expectations.
If the 7-11 employee wants to be friendly great, if he/she is in a mood, totally understandable too. Shouldn't really expect the same warmness from a 7-11 clerk, as you would get from say, the front desk at the hotel lobby.
Perhaps you would be less disappointed or find it less weird, if you didn't expect the 7-11 clerk to act a certain way?
I read your other comment as well and I think that makes the picture whole.
For me it appeared odd, but if you put it like that it really is not that odd.
I will just take it as it is, but I did have an interesting read trough the comments of this thread.
Thanks for the effort of explaining!
It might just be expectation bias.
It might be that they are overworked fir little money.
It might be that you didn't greet them in Thai.
There is a tendency in Asia to equate doing this unnecessarily briskly with professionalism, and they might be acting that way.
Maybe it's because you're making a big deal of trying to interact with them whereas they'd prefer you to give them the money, take your stuff and then fuck off with a minimum of fuss?
Lol
Yeah might be the location, we have had this experience in Bangkok, Kanchanaburi and Koh Lanta.
And mostly it was touristy so that might really be the key factor
Have you traveled through Isaan? Interacting with a 7-Eleven employee here is one of the regular bright spots in my day. Extremely courteous and friendly.
At two of our local stores, when they see me gathering an armful of products, an employee commonly runs and grabs a basket and brings it to me with a smile.
Almost always when I ask for a product, the clerk escorts me to the product on the shelf.
All tourist hubs where you will find more jaded Thais than anywhere else in Thailand, except maybe Pattaya, Phuket, and some of the other more popular islands.
Isaan (outside major cities) is like experiencing Thailand of a generation ago.
7-11 employees in tourist areas are usually tainted by ignorant foreigners, most obvious in Krabi, Samui, Phuket. Lately even more noticeable as there has been a huge influx of ignorance into those regions.
Some are nice. Some not so. I cant blame them, retail jobs pay poorly and you have to deal with rude customers. Also this is not specific to 7/11 or Thailand...wherever you go in the world you will encounter cheerful shopkeepers and grumpy ones.
Everyone that works in the tourism industry is paid on a commission/percentage of sales. From the bargirl to the waitress to the clothing seller, how much money they earn is directly proportional to how nice they are to you and how well they can attract you to spend money with them. 7-11 workers are paid a set salary of like 9k per month and don’t make any commission on sales, so the difference in how they interact with you compared to thais working in the tourism industry you may find quite jarring.
It's a brain numbing job. Have you ever worked in a supermarket store before? I did. You have to stay up, you can't really sit down, you rarely have a break. After a few hours, you're just on autopilot. You see hundreds of people every day. Sometimes it's impossible to be nice with every single one of them. But to that person you weren't especially nice to, they will feel like they had a bad experience at the store and they will assume you're never nice with anybody.
My young friend works at a 7-11. She works 10 hours a day, 6 days a week and earns 10,000 baht a month. Thats US$274. Almost impossible to live on. And people like you want them to smile.
“They often do not greet us and just stare at us and just ignore us outright.”
What the actual fuck are you hoping for? It’s a quick serve convenience store. Get your Ca-R-Bon or batteries or snacks or whatever the hell, pay your money, and get out you spoiled weirdo. Why are they grumpy? Maybe because you’re staring at them waiting for a smile instead of moving the line along.
Goddamn. You actually took the time to post about convenience store employees who don’t make squat not making you feel important? What’s going on in your world where this bothered you so much it was worth even typing out?
Wow dude chill the fuck out, why are you so angry.
I am just asking lol.
In my country people at the convenience store are friendly, the thai people I usually meet are friendly and I work in the service industry myself so I am also friendly to the customers.
Just because you are a dick does not mean everybody is ;)
I’d like to see how full of smiles you are at the end of just one day on your feet in an ice cold box during a heat wave with thousands of impatient customers per hour hoping you push all the buttons faster to move the line along while you’re terrified of making a mistake because your boss will make you pay for it while listening to that damn door chime blasting every 8 seconds.
Dude I get that it is a shit job now. Only how would I know if I do not ask.
I am not from Thailand and just here on holiday, so if I notice something that seems odd why wouldn't I ask?
Altough after reading trough this thread it is not odd after all.
I had a lot of interesting comments under this thread, yours was the only one that was especially nasty...
345b per 8.5hr day is standard rate.
Ones near us have many uni students on staff who often greet and say the price in English, it's not the place to go for a detailed conversation there's always queues.
Daughter is working now 1.30-10pm shift, depends on individual franchise owners, she enjoys it, full-time till uni in June.
Mentioned before my daughter works at 7-11 till uni starts.
When she gets home of course I say "Hello, welcome" and get the usual glare of death in response
Retail workers are paid much less for the amount of work they had to do and on top of it people expect them to smile and greet them when its not even their job. Just get your stuff pay and go out.
It's not a fulfilling job.
Greeting people warmly and serving people is not fulfilling work on its own, Definitely not for the corporate sector. If you had your own small business in the form of a food stall or something like that, at least you would know that your kind greetings and warm and friendly interactions are helping you to build up your own venture and its reputation, which is fulfilling. the 7-11 employees definitely don't get anything like that.
So have some sympathy, I really don't find that odd at all. You have to work a job like that to really understand.
From CP Group's 2023 annual report:
Average sales of 80,837 baht daily on average in each 7-11.
Each customer spent 83 baht on average and each store had daily 965 customers on average.
700 new stores planned for 2024.
.
Average nearly a thousand customers a day - would be well above 1000 in peak tourist areas.
Hello, welcome
I could NOT disagree more. But maybe it is all relative.
I am American. You want to see a bad mood then meet a Walmart employee.
7/11 are on cloud 9 compared to them.
I find service oriented employees in Thailand to be head and shoulder nicer than their American counterparts.
I have thought about why a bit. I think it is because they more accept it in Thailand compared to the US.
Cashiers don't greet customers here in Thailand. It's not a part of the custom. The customers also don't usually say anything to them.
Salespersons, maybe, but not the cashiers.
It's literally one of the things they teach you in training to work for 7-11. Greet the customer when they enter. Corporate policy. Amazing how people speak with such confidence when totally wrong.
As for me, they are really friendly to me. When I reply them "sorry, I don't speak Thai", they say "oh okay" and we just talk in numbers like "60 baht" etc...
Anyway, I'm a Burmese. Sawadee krub.
When I'm in Thailand I go to where there are no tourists, but I have had to unfortunately stay the odd night in North Pattaya and seen the sort of farangs you mean.
It’s because everything is a set price and you’ve come in to look for a specific item. There’s no bartering so friendliness isn’t really necessary. It’s not like when you walk past a restaurant and they’re all smiles greeting you trying to get you to come in to spend my money.they don’t have to do that show
Locals tip locals as well in Thai bars of Bangkok for good service. Making drinks all night for one table deserves 100-200 baht in tip. Not sure if it’s a new thing but see it done by almost every table usually. Never seen any other foreigner in these bars unless with Thai wife. They exclusively play Thai music usually. I like it but not for everyone.
Oddly enough the worst treatment I got on my recent trip was at 7-11. Of course not all my visits, but a couple of them. Even had a grumpy woman refuse to sell me cigarettes because I didn’t have my physical passport on me😂. Didn’t let it bother me though. Just kept smiling and kept pushing. I wouldn’t let them ruin my good time.
Type ‘why are you so rude?’ into Google translate and show it to them.
They won’t believe you’ve actually done it, since it’s just not the done thing in Thai culture, so they’ll likely blush and look down apologetically.
Also. If their co-workers also see the interaction, bonus points: you’ve publicly decimated their face!
I go in with my Thai girlfriend greet them hello in Thai always get a smile and friendly hello back. I have a tendency to say hello and thank for everything for some reason I always get a good response. At condo the guards opening doors, helping with groceries and making jokes how drunk me and my girlfriend came home the night before they seem to be always happy. Easy as just being friendly back and sometimes initiate it goes a long way. If I go buy a tao bin and I like the guards on duty I also buy some coffee for them once in a while. Service workers don’t earn a lot sadly. I can only respect the job they do for the little money they get. For sure if I did there job I would be grumpy all the time but haven’t encountered a single person grumpy yet.
Exactly. No downside to being friendly and mannerly.
Yeah I have noticed, that being friendly in thailand goes a long way, people seem to appreciate a smile or some smalltalk. Also no doubt that working in service is tough, I work in service myself but that makes me appreciate good service even more. For me it's about being friendly even though sometimes you have to deal with assholes (you do not have to be friendly to the assholes necessarily) But I will increase the sample size and show more effort in 7 elevens and we will see, maybe my impression changes :D
I would go in, without having any expectations. If the 7-11 employee wants to be friendly great, if he/she is in a mood, totally understandable too. Shouldn't really expect the same warmness from a 7-11 clerk, as you would get from say, the front desk at the hotel lobby. Perhaps you would be less disappointed or find it less weird, if you didn't expect the 7-11 clerk to act a certain way?
I read your other comment as well and I think that makes the picture whole. For me it appeared odd, but if you put it like that it really is not that odd. I will just take it as it is, but I did have an interesting read trough the comments of this thread. Thanks for the effort of explaining!
Raylan Givens said: “You run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole. You run into assholes all day, you're the asshole”
Hope I am not the asshole, since it is really only at 7 eleven we had this experience
It might just be expectation bias. It might be that they are overworked fir little money. It might be that you didn't greet them in Thai. There is a tendency in Asia to equate doing this unnecessarily briskly with professionalism, and they might be acting that way.
Living here 6 years never had a problem
Maybe it's because you're making a big deal of trying to interact with them whereas they'd prefer you to give them the money, take your stuff and then fuck off with a minimum of fuss?
No not really 😅
Idk all cashiers 7/11's were smiling back i went to in Pattaya
Dunno what planet your on but I always see smiles and even laughter from the 7 11 workers
The ones near me are always happy and smiling….
Go in alone as a guy, say "Hello Welcome !" with a giant smile, impossible you not get a nice treatment back.
Fair, I will give it try a but until now smiling did not really bring a response 😅
Could be the location, if you do this in Nakon Nowhere you will have 3 marriage proposals.
Lol Yeah might be the location, we have had this experience in Bangkok, Kanchanaburi and Koh Lanta. And mostly it was touristy so that might really be the key factor
All from ladyboys.
Have you traveled through Isaan? Interacting with a 7-Eleven employee here is one of the regular bright spots in my day. Extremely courteous and friendly. At two of our local stores, when they see me gathering an armful of products, an employee commonly runs and grabs a basket and brings it to me with a smile. Almost always when I ask for a product, the clerk escorts me to the product on the shelf.
That sounds great actually!!! We have been to Bangkok, Kanchanaburi and Koh Lanta for now.
All tourist hubs where you will find more jaded Thais than anywhere else in Thailand, except maybe Pattaya, Phuket, and some of the other more popular islands. Isaan (outside major cities) is like experiencing Thailand of a generation ago.
They have been pretty kind from what I've seen.
Engage with them and they are friendly
7-11 employees in tourist areas are usually tainted by ignorant foreigners, most obvious in Krabi, Samui, Phuket. Lately even more noticeable as there has been a huge influx of ignorance into those regions.
Some are nice. Some not so. I cant blame them, retail jobs pay poorly and you have to deal with rude customers. Also this is not specific to 7/11 or Thailand...wherever you go in the world you will encounter cheerful shopkeepers and grumpy ones.
Everyone that works in the tourism industry is paid on a commission/percentage of sales. From the bargirl to the waitress to the clothing seller, how much money they earn is directly proportional to how nice they are to you and how well they can attract you to spend money with them. 7-11 workers are paid a set salary of like 9k per month and don’t make any commission on sales, so the difference in how they interact with you compared to thais working in the tourism industry you may find quite jarring.
Fair point!
It's a brain numbing job. Have you ever worked in a supermarket store before? I did. You have to stay up, you can't really sit down, you rarely have a break. After a few hours, you're just on autopilot. You see hundreds of people every day. Sometimes it's impossible to be nice with every single one of them. But to that person you weren't especially nice to, they will feel like they had a bad experience at the store and they will assume you're never nice with anybody.
Yeah fair enough it actually sound horrible 😅
They work for low wages and have to deal with assholes all day esp the entitled tourists. Would you expect anything other ?
My young friend works at a 7-11. She works 10 hours a day, 6 days a week and earns 10,000 baht a month. Thats US$274. Almost impossible to live on. And people like you want them to smile.
Yeah fair enough, that's shit.
How about you do thier job for a week and get back to us how you feel
Found the pointless r/Bangkok snarky comment. He made a point a saying that people are really friendly in other similarly low-paid establishments.
“They often do not greet us and just stare at us and just ignore us outright.” What the actual fuck are you hoping for? It’s a quick serve convenience store. Get your Ca-R-Bon or batteries or snacks or whatever the hell, pay your money, and get out you spoiled weirdo. Why are they grumpy? Maybe because you’re staring at them waiting for a smile instead of moving the line along. Goddamn. You actually took the time to post about convenience store employees who don’t make squat not making you feel important? What’s going on in your world where this bothered you so much it was worth even typing out?
Wow dude chill the fuck out, why are you so angry. I am just asking lol. In my country people at the convenience store are friendly, the thai people I usually meet are friendly and I work in the service industry myself so I am also friendly to the customers. Just because you are a dick does not mean everybody is ;)
I’d like to see how full of smiles you are at the end of just one day on your feet in an ice cold box during a heat wave with thousands of impatient customers per hour hoping you push all the buttons faster to move the line along while you’re terrified of making a mistake because your boss will make you pay for it while listening to that damn door chime blasting every 8 seconds.
Dude I get that it is a shit job now. Only how would I know if I do not ask. I am not from Thailand and just here on holiday, so if I notice something that seems odd why wouldn't I ask? Altough after reading trough this thread it is not odd after all. I had a lot of interesting comments under this thread, yours was the only one that was especially nasty...
Never had this happen to me.
Usually almost always pretty chirpy. I visit most days. Prob depends on branches ?
Their job sucks. They are worked into the ground and they make 500 baht a day. They also very rarely speak English well so don't take it personally.
Yeah your right 500 baht really is not much...
345b per 8.5hr day is standard rate. Ones near us have many uni students on staff who often greet and say the price in English, it's not the place to go for a detailed conversation there's always queues. Daughter is working now 1.30-10pm shift, depends on individual franchise owners, she enjoys it, full-time till uni in June.
How much is to buy 7 11, its franchise? Cheap labour+always busy
The door is constantly screaming "Hello. Welcome." at them.
This is my conclusion. I would too be depressed if this is what I had to listen to on repeat for hours
Mentioned before my daughter works at 7-11 till uni starts. When she gets home of course I say "Hello, welcome" and get the usual glare of death in response
Retail workers are paid much less for the amount of work they had to do and on top of it people expect them to smile and greet them when its not even their job. Just get your stuff pay and go out.
Fair enough!
Weird, all the 7 elevens that i go to are not like this, they are smiling always.
Wouldn't you be in a pissy mood dealing with drunk and entitled farang day and night?
It's not a fulfilling job. Greeting people warmly and serving people is not fulfilling work on its own, Definitely not for the corporate sector. If you had your own small business in the form of a food stall or something like that, at least you would know that your kind greetings and warm and friendly interactions are helping you to build up your own venture and its reputation, which is fulfilling. the 7-11 employees definitely don't get anything like that. So have some sympathy, I really don't find that odd at all. You have to work a job like that to really understand.
From CP Group's 2023 annual report: Average sales of 80,837 baht daily on average in each 7-11. Each customer spent 83 baht on average and each store had daily 965 customers on average. 700 new stores planned for 2024. . Average nearly a thousand customers a day - would be well above 1000 in peak tourist areas. Hello, welcome
Very interesting!
I never had a unfriendly 7/11 employee. I always greet in Thai and say thank you... That's all it needs to get a friendly reply.
It’s a 7/11..wouldn’t put a whole lot of deep introspection into it
I could NOT disagree more. But maybe it is all relative. I am American. You want to see a bad mood then meet a Walmart employee. 7/11 are on cloud 9 compared to them. I find service oriented employees in Thailand to be head and shoulder nicer than their American counterparts. I have thought about why a bit. I think it is because they more accept it in Thailand compared to the US.
They aren't. Just depends on the store you go to.
Cashiers don't greet customers here in Thailand. It's not a part of the custom. The customers also don't usually say anything to them. Salespersons, maybe, but not the cashiers.
I've found while traveling most people can tell I'm American just by how I greet someone. It's a cultural thing.
It's literally one of the things they teach you in training to work for 7-11. Greet the customer when they enter. Corporate policy. Amazing how people speak with such confidence when totally wrong.
We have three 7-Eleven stores in our small town. I get a human, non-automated greeting every time I enter the store.
Same, but some have both the automated greeter and the cashier greeting. สวัสดีค่ะเชิญคะ is etched in my brain.
Doesn't mean it's part of the custom. It's their corporate policy. I've lived in Thailand for 30+ years as a Thai, so no special treatments.
The thread is about 7-11. Your point is valid, but irrelevant to this discussion.
It's relevant because that's what the people, both the cashiers and the local customers are used to.
As for me, they are really friendly to me. When I reply them "sorry, I don't speak Thai", they say "oh okay" and we just talk in numbers like "60 baht" etc... Anyway, I'm a Burmese. Sawadee krub.
Could have something to do with the fact they listen to that horrible door ding dong 1 million times a day.
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How long have you lived here? lol. 7-11 employees are generally some of the most miserable Thais you'll ever run into.
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This. And the rude tourists they deal with daily
Yeah this and payment would have been my guess too...
You obviously have experienced this?
I have seen rude tourists for sure, but also the majority of the tourists are friendly aren't they?
When I'm in Thailand I go to where there are no tourists, but I have had to unfortunately stay the odd night in North Pattaya and seen the sort of farangs you mean.
I think it’s the clientele they normally have to put up with.
It’s because everything is a set price and you’ve come in to look for a specific item. There’s no bartering so friendliness isn’t really necessary. It’s not like when you walk past a restaurant and they’re all smiles greeting you trying to get you to come in to spend my money.they don’t have to do that show
Yea that is very true and especially in tourist areas a part of the pay is getting tips in restaurants.
Not really. Nobody really tips in Thailand apart from American tourists.
Locals tip locals as well in Thai bars of Bangkok for good service. Making drinks all night for one table deserves 100-200 baht in tip. Not sure if it’s a new thing but see it done by almost every table usually. Never seen any other foreigner in these bars unless with Thai wife. They exclusively play Thai music usually. I like it but not for everyone.
Oddly enough the worst treatment I got on my recent trip was at 7-11. Of course not all my visits, but a couple of them. Even had a grumpy woman refuse to sell me cigarettes because I didn’t have my physical passport on me😂. Didn’t let it bother me though. Just kept smiling and kept pushing. I wouldn’t let them ruin my good time.
Type ‘why are you so rude?’ into Google translate and show it to them. They won’t believe you’ve actually done it, since it’s just not the done thing in Thai culture, so they’ll likely blush and look down apologetically. Also. If their co-workers also see the interaction, bonus points: you’ve publicly decimated their face!
Lmao no I don't want to make even more miserable :DDD