Although it’s not the most exciting topic, we admit being pretty intrigued by grocery shopping in Thailand before moving here. Things we wanted to know included: How much does produce cost? Is meat really butchered in front of our eyes or is it in a pretty sterile package like it is back home? What is the availability of Western spices or an infamous jar of peanut butter? Whether or not you’re one to enjoy this domestic task, you may be pleasantly surprised at what can be found in Thailand’s markets and grocery stores and at what cost.
Shopping in Thailand’s Grocery Stores
Thailand has several popular grocery store chains that very closely resemble what we are familiar with back home. You know, the kind with white tiled floors and bright lights and beautifully organized and labeled packaged goods. A few popular grocery store chains in Thailand include Tesco Lotus, Big C, Makro, and Tops Market.
We still shop at these grocery stores and did so particularly a lot when we first moved to Thailand before we became comfortable shopping at Thai markets. We’re happy to find things like bread and yogurt and pasta and various imported fruits (apples and grapes) and vegetables (lemons and celery). Oddly though, we’ve never managed to find a pantry staple like chicken stock, and it’s difficult to find cheese other than Kraft Singles. Now a days, we keep our food purchases at grocery stores to a minimum and mostly stick to buying household items like trash bags, sponges, and cat food.
It wasn’t until six months after we moved to Chiang Mai that we finally decided to explore an international grocery store called Rimping. We felt like we won the lottery! Every once in a while we treat ourselves to a shopping spree here and indulge in hard-to-find items like chocolate covered coffee beans, whole wheat pasta, a fresh wedge of Parmesan cheese, or steak. Who could resist foods like these?
Rimping is incredible. It has a bakery featuring freshly baked baguettes, scones, and our personal favorite, soft sourdough pretzels. It has a kickin’ seafood and meat department and an entire aisle dedicated to pasta. There are tons of canned and jarred goods like beans, sauces and spreads, as well as pickles and olives. They even have a baking aisle and another dedicated to imported cheeses.
The produce section features some hard to find items like asparagus, zucchini, and lettuce, as well as impossible to find items like peaches and Italian basil. Rimping is amply stocked with familiar toiletries and grooming products, and even our cat can count on food imported from the USA in which the first ingredient isn’t corn or rice.
Here’s a look at our latest purchase. For about four bags worth of groceries, we spent 2,444 baht ($75 USD). Obviously it’s not the price that’s impressive, it’s the stuff we were able to buy while grocery shopping in Thailand.
We usually don’t buy fruits or veggies at Rimping if we can buy it at a Thai market, but it’s refreshing to see that the packages advertise “pesticide free” produce, which invariably is an issue here in Thailand.
There is, inevitably, a premium to be paid to have access to familiar brands that are otherwise completely unobtainable from Thai markets. After getting over the sticker shock, we are thankful to have a place like Rimping to shop at when we are looking to cook some old recipes or indulge in favorite pastime snacks.
Grocery Shopping in Thailand’s Markets
We do 80% or more of our grocery shopping at our local market. Conveniently, it’s just a one or two minute walk down a little back road. We wish we could say we shopped at our local farmer’s market back home, but most of the prices were much higher than our old grocery store, so we only shopped there a few times a month.
As with most Thai markets, ours sells fresh food and non-commercially packaged food. It has about seven or eight different vegetable vendors, three or four different fruit vendors, and about a dozen vendors specializing in either chicken, beef (er, water buffalo?), pork, fish, or shellfish. We can get three chicken quarters for around 80 baht (almost $3 USD) or four chicken breasts for 60 baht ($2 US).
There are many items that come in plastic bags rubber-banded shut. This includes freshly made wheat and rice noodles and wontons, pickled vegetables, fresh curry pastes, and eggs in packs of ten. For a mere 5 baht ($0.15 USD) there are tiny bags of garlic, scallions, sesame seeds, and both fresh and dried chilies. Herbs come in generous sized bundles for 5 baht as well. We remember paying $3 to 4 USD back home for a small-sized bundle of cilantro or basil. The price difference is incredible!
Other things we can typically find include bags of white, brown, or cane sugar, dry spaghetti, and nuts, as well as coconut milk and various bottles of fish sauce, soy sauce, and chili sauce. We’ve also seen small bags of dry cat and dog food and bird seed and household items like sponges, cleaning agents, twist ties, etc.
As it happens maybe once a week or so, we will buy cooked dinner right from the market. Whether it is sweet green curry and rice, slow cooked pork leg, or chicken and veggie stir-fry, it’s hard to beat the price (30 baht! $1 USD) and convenience.
Although this size of our purchases at Thai markets are smaller than our splurges at Rimping, here are two examples of our latest purchases from our Thai market:
This first batch cost us 120 baht ($4 USD) and included three snacks (fried bananas, fresh spring rolls, and sesame bean dough puffs) and brown rice, two chicken quarters, peppers, celery, onions, and tomatoes. We used these ingredients to make chicken gumbo.
The second batch cost us 270 baht ($9 USD), and included three chicken quarters, eggs, Thai basil, mushrooms, watermelon, Western green beans, mangosteen fruit, and a packet of curry seasoning.
Grocery shopping in Thailand’s markets is affordable and we’ve grown to like the big mounds of produce and interesting cuts of fresh meat. We admit that it takes a bit getting used to finding what we needed and seeing everything so raw.
It’s also inevitable that at times we’ve gone to the market with a particular meal in mind only to be disappointed that we can’t find a certain vegetable or that a cut of meat we want is sold out. But that’s life when you live in a society that believes in fresh, in-season produce.
So what do you think? Are you happy to know that Thailand has more than just open aired markets at which to grocery shop? What things are you curious about finding? Or what foods are you worried about not finding in Thailand?
Thank you so much for this! I love cultural, open-air markets. So much research i’ve done, people are giving these outrageous expenses from the imported stores. These are the prices I was wondering about. Thank you, I can definitely budget with these prices! Love your story!
You’re very welcome. Thanks for commenting!
$1 fresh spring roll , 0.15cents fried banana … wow ! thats awfully cheap .
we pay $1.20 for fried banana and $3.50 for fresh spring roll
What market will I go for fresh produce and fresh fruits in chiang mai. My husband and I are staying here for 4 months. We are staying in one of the peaks building. I want a Thai market that’s walking distance to my place. I appreciate it so much if you can help. Thank you.
Off the top of our heads we can only think of the Night Bazaar (Anusarn Market) near you, but that sells crafts and clothes and has several restaurants. The best thing to do is hail a songthaew driver (red truck taxi) and ask him where the nearest market is. They can be quite hidden!
Yay, Australian steaks! I’m so glad you wrote about this, I’ll be slow-travelling to Changmai soon and it’s been really hard to find information on groceries. (It’s an exciting topic to me lol!)
You’ll be even more excited once you step foot in one of these grocery stores! Glad we could help provide perspective into this overlooked topic :)
When Thailand got hit by the bird flu and had to destroy all those chickens, the Thai government introduced hormones to quickly replace stock. Hormones in my meat matter to me so I buy chicken, pork, eggs and such at either Villa (Bangkok) or Paragon’s Gourmet grocery store (Bangkok) or Rimping (Chiang mai). There are other hormone free grocery stores in Bangkok (google). The last time I was there, the newly renovated Tops in Central Lad Prao had hormone free chicken and eggs. By buying fruit and veg and other stuff at the Thai markets I almost halve my grocery… Read more »
We had forgotten about the bird-flu epidemic. Thanks for sharing the tip about where to go about finding hormone-free meats. This is great info!
You mentioned MAKRO market. If I recall this is a members club shopping store. Since most of us Are or Will be retirees, how did you go about getting a membership with out being a business?
I had been in the store on Phuket but did not purchase since i had no membership card.
You can apply for a Makro membership online as an “End User”: http://www.siammakro.co.th/en/register.php
Would love to hear about the Aussie Steak…. Since I’m Australian I don’t understand the fascination with an Australian cut of steak – more from the Americans point of view, is it really that different all around ???
We had the sirloin last night. We rubbed with a dry spice mixture of smoked chilies, garlic, coarse ground salt and pepper, chili powder, oregano, and finely ground coffee, pan seared it until medium and served it with asparagus. Delish! It was just as good as cuts we’ve gotten back in the US, but who knows, someone who grew up in the Midwest around cattle all their life may say otherwise (we have more experience with seafood growing up on the East Coast). It was cheaper than the American sirloin at Rimping, possibly because Australia is so much closer. We’ll… Read more »
One local market we explored was Siri Wattana or Thanin Market, the produce was always fresh and a sight to see. There is always plenty to see and do around this area. The locals certainly know where to shop what more could you want.
I love Rimping and have even managed to eat low carb lately because they have most things I need – when I first moved here I thought it would be impossible in Thailand. We’re lucky to have a Tesco, Rimping and market within walking distance and although we do most of our shopping at Rimping I love the local market.
Having Rimping and even tho other supercenters, such as Tesco and Big C, can really help if you’re trying to avoid certain foods in your diet but want alternatives. Us Westerners definitely have a lot of varying diets. As much as we love Rimping, we’re glad that our closest store is just a little too far away to walk to. Otherwise, we’d probably find ourselves going there several times a week and bust our budget!
Great post will bookmark for later. We stayed 5 min walk from Maya Mall and ate in the lower food hall most days. We would have a cooked breakfast at Rimping Restaurant cost of 59THB this worked out cheaper than buying and cooking at our apartment. Plenty of cheese products(Australian no Kiwi unfortunately) at Rimping Supermarket, it was easy to buy a small block of Feta Cheese take it to the restaurant and they would put it into a Greek salad for you. Will be living in CM next year and will be visiting the markets for the fresh food.… Read more »
It’s hard to beat a good breakfast for 59 baht! That’s awesome. We love that you take your own cheese to a restaurant and ask them to add it to a salad. What a great idea!
Love Rimping, even found sensitive skin clothes washing liquid which I thought would be impossible and their big pink juicy apples were the best. Pricey but worth it. Good post guys.
Excellent point about the sensitive skin products. Same goes to moisturizers and sun lotions, if you don’t want the kind with the whitening products in it! We miss good apples :/
Omigosh! That comment about the Kraft singles really hit home. Living in Indonesia wasn’t enjoyable for a cheese lover like me because most Asians don’t do dairy. I’ve been wondering whether it’s because they are often lactose intolerant, or if they are lactose intolerant because they don’t do dairy…
We’ve wondered the same cause and effect question too, about lactose. No milk, butter, cream, or cheese in a Thai dish unless it’s a fusion of sorts. Which means that we eventually start missing all of those things… We’ve made it a point to treat ourselves to cheese nights with friends about once a month, complete with baguettes, pickles, pesto spread, olives, and cured meats. It hits the spot!
Hi there, do you find it cheaper to buy the products and eat at home rather than eating out most days? I have heard that it so cheap to eat out. In saying that, we are moving to Thailand early next year (Hua Hin) and I would like to eat breakfast at home and lunch maybe and then go out and socialize at night over a meal. That’s what I love about Asia, socializing after dark as everyone is out in the streets, not tucked away in their lounge rooms like here in Australia.
We do exactly what you plan on doing – eating in for breakfast (usually eggs and fruit), sometimes leftovers for lunch or classic Thai food, and then splurge on dinner a few times a week. If we want Thai food, it’s cheaper (and better) just to eat out. My attempts at making a home-cooked Thai dish is not nearly as good as the Thai ladies down the street, so we just leave it up to the pros and go out for Thai food. On the flip side, if we want Western food, we make it at home because it’s almost… Read more »
Sounds perfect, thanks for getting back to me.
You’re very welcome! Good question!
How good is the Australian steak? I’m from Nebraska so I have pretty high standards :)
We haven’t defrosted it yet, but are looking forward to it. Maybe serve it with a side of asparagus. We’ll keep you updated!
We ate our fair share of steak back in the US on the East Coast, but you may have us with your Midwest palette! :) Last night we cooked up the sirloin and were very happy with it – rubbed with our own dry spice mix and seared on high until medium/medium-rare. Good flavor and texture. We’ll definitely get it again!
$75 would be cheap for 4 bags of groceries in Honolulu – but trust me, there wouldn’t be anything like smoked oysters or asparagus (even though it is grown on-island) in that $75 bag – only the very basics. This is why, even though I love it here and have lived here for 28 years, I don’t see myself retiring here. As I told a friend yesterday I love living in Thailand and if I retire there I can afford to visit Hawai’i, but if I retire in Hawai’i I won’t be able to visit Thailand or anywhere else. The… Read more »
Definitely chose to retire in Thailand so you can afford to travel elsewhere! The first time we saw fresh pressed coconut milk in a Thai market we were amazed by the machine. We had just incorrectly assumed that a task like this was only done in a factory. It just made us love coconut milk even more! $75 is still a lot for groceries (comparatively to everything else) but we’re happy to treat ourselves to a few goodies here and there.
Everything looks good. Now I’m hungry. Do you do delivery? Seriously, we’ve been to many markets there and it’s nice to see the sheer variety of foods, fresh and prepared. My wife is half Thai and speaks Thai very well so that helps with the communication. She helps me with the exact pronunciation so I’ll get fewer blank stares… We’re still planning to move to Thailand next year and I’m looking forward to the market experience. The prices are fairly cheap and even the beef is the same or cheaper than here in the states these days. Thanks for the… Read more »
Our favorites are going to the HUGE markets, like Warorat Market in Chiang Mai and Pak Khlong Talat Market in Bangkok. The variety is amazing, but it’s the sheer volume that blows us away.
Great post! Our grocery stores in Phuket are unfortunately not as cheap but there are certainly still deals out there! I just left The Big C with 3 bags worth of cleaning supplies and snacks for around 450 baht. It still amazes me what type of products you can get here that I sometimes struggled finding back home! I love that they have Amy’s brand foods here. Does Chiang Mai? There salsas are pretty amazing.
We saw Dr. Bronner’s handsoap in Rimping! Now that we think about it, we’ve see the Amy’s brand in the frozen section. There’s Haagen-Dazs icecream, too!