Why do farang buy bars?

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usual suspect
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Re: Why do farang buy bars?

Post by usual suspect »

Well you lot..Richard's short list at the start of this thread is not far out at all..
When you see a bar with music blasting out & no customers..Mai-pen rai..Big boss pay.
When the bar has loud music & the Sangsom/soda table outside..Big boss paying.
When bar has Thai customers partying..Big boss not mind..mai pen rai.
When bar has regular L/b's in there..usually trying to take over the Sangsom-table..
...Big boss may hear of this..?
When bar is For Sale, shutter-door stays down, rubbish piling up on the frontage...
....Big boss DID hear of what's been going on, & now Big boss stop money, dump his lady,
cuts his losses...& starts relationship with a new lady elsewhere.

(& the landlady lives happily ever-after because new farang want to 'buy' bar, so she's upped the rent & key-money 10-15%..TiT).
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dtaai-maai
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Re: Why do farang buy bars?

Post by dtaai-maai »

The Enniscrone Pig wrote:
dtaai-maai wrote:I've been here for over a decade now, and one thing that's always puzzled me is why so many farang (apparently) buy bars here.
Why don't you ask a bar owner, or do you think you'll get a more honest answer on this forum?
What an odd little post.

If it's a serious question, it falls into the silly category. If it isn't, then it's designed to spark a tetchy response.

I'm not sure why I'd get a less than honest answer on the forum, which has a few bar owners and plenty of experts on the subject. And I doubt that wandering into a failing bar and asking the owner what on earth he thought he was doing when he bought it would make for a pleasant evening.

If you can only ask bar owners about bars, does that mean you can only ask butchers about sausages or politicians about politics?

The Enniscrone Pig - great user name, crap post.
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Re: Why do farang buy bars?

Post by musungu »

dtaai-maai wrote:
The Enniscrone Pig wrote:
dtaai-maai wrote:I've been here for over a decade now, and one thing that's always puzzled me is why so many farang (apparently) buy bars here.
Why don't you ask a bar owner, or do you think you'll get a more honest answer on this forum?
What an odd little post.

If it's a serious question, it falls into the silly category. If it isn't, then it's designed to spark a tetchy response.

I'm not sure why I'd get a less than honest answer on the forum, which has a few bar owners and plenty of experts on the subject. And I doubt that wandering into a failing bar and asking the owner what on earth he thought he was doing when he bought it would make for a pleasant evening.

If you can only ask bar owners about bars, does that mean you can only ask butchers about sausages or politicians about politics?

The Enniscrone Pig - great user name, crap post.
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Re: Why do farang buy bars?

Post by Pagey »

You missed out another option US, when bar doesn't make enough money Big Boss goes back to his home country in Europe to work for 3 months a year to keep it afloat.
'If you didn't have a wasted youth you wasted your youth'

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Re: Why do farang buy bars?

Post by theprice01 »

dtaai-maai wrote: And I doubt that wandering into a failing bar and asking the owner what on earth he thought he was doing when he bought it would make for a pleasant evening.
Not unless you really want to find out just how good your medical insurance is lol :P

'US' is the only bar owner i know of on the forum, im not expecting a reply from him but after recent comments and threads about customers being given wrong change (and other payment related problems) when paying the bill, i have to wonder, if bar owners have found there staff more 'light fingered' in these not-so-busy times?!
When nosy expats ask how can i live here without working, i reply, 'well, while you worked hard for 50 years, i worked smart for 5 years' :D
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Re: Why do farang buy bars?

Post by usual suspect »

5555..Pagey-boy!..remember I'm from Yorkshire..& my hard-earned brass will be kept safe under a secure mattress.. :wink: :wink:
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Re: Why do farang buy bars?

Post by usual suspect »

As for what fellow forum member 'The price' is suggesting...I agree..My wife has to be extra vigilant, & tries to keep a keen eye on proceedings. :cheers:
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Re: Why do farang buy bars?

Post by theprice01 »

^ (y).
Will be at Kims later today so hope to see you soon :)
When nosy expats ask how can i live here without working, i reply, 'well, while you worked hard for 50 years, i worked smart for 5 years' :D
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Re: Why do farang buy bars?

Post by Pleng »

dtaai-maai wrote:And I doubt that wandering into a failing bar and asking the owner what on earth he thought he was doing when he bought it would make for a pleasant evening.
To be fair, while I don't agree with The Enniscrone Pig's comment, I don't think he was advocating asking a failing bar's owner what his reasoning was. If you wanted to go down the route of asking bar owners directly then surely you'd look to bars that have just recently been purchased and ask the owner what the motivation was and what they hope to achieve. Still would be difficult to do without sounding overly nosey, though.
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Re: Why do farang buy bars?

Post by richard »

usual suspect wrote:As for what fellow forum member 'The price' is suggesting...I agree..My wife has to be extra vigilant, & tries to keep a keen eye on proceedings. :cheers:
Without promoting you (which would get me 6 with the cane) I think your places are the exception rather than the rule. Your staff are hand picked. trained, abide by your rules and in return are well looked after. One would almost consider them to be one big family (which I'm sure many are).

Conversely many bars are bought by a guy with a thick wad and minimum grey cells who relies on his newly acquired Thai g/f who he trusts implicitly to run the joint. Goes home to earn some more dosh and g/f and resident girls and boys proceed to demolish the liquor store and fleece the dumb farang.
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Re: Why do farang buy bars?

Post by Stargeezer »

I agree that to go ask a new bar owner what their motive is and what they think their future will
be, would be a good bar owner to ask. If you ask a bar owner that is still surviving and
looks happy at least part of the time, you may get a totally different answer.
I seen a bar/restaurant combo somewhere in Hua Hin, ant that seemed to be working
out for the owners. I just can not remember what part of HH I seen it in.
Guess I have another project to do when I go there for my next extended stay.
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Re: Why do farang buy bars?

Post by usual suspect »

Maybe I was being somewhat bitter towards Farangs who open bars with help from their teeraks.
The fella feels he is investing his money into a worthy cause...he may know from the outset that the dosh he puts up front for say re-furb, key money, initial stocking of fridge/spirit shelf will be written off, but does in his heart feel him & his lady CAN make some money back, & enjoy some good times doing it :thumb:
But HH has a long low-season, bills need to be paid, so the man finds out there's work for him in his home-country & goes back to earn a bit...THAT'S the real test of how loyal his lady is ...
..& in many cases it's her staff that will prey on her good nature & lead her astray.. :tsk:
(When you see her in the 'dark-side' with her staff after closing her bar early that's not a good sign.)
Many factors determine if a bar survives or sinks in Thailand, & indeed the UK it's no happy-holiday for pub-owners just now, so in many respects the 2 countries are same-same, but...
So I do feel many Farang bar-owners in HH DO sign up for the place in good faith & believe it will work for them... :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:

(none of the above applies to me..well, I don't think so :laugh: :laugh: )
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Re: Why do farang buy bars?

Post by sledge »

I think it's fair to say many of them would be a passion project with little expectation of financial gain rather than a sage business investment. Immediate basic calculation of how many bottles of local beer you would have to sell just to pay daily costs should be enough to put those in the latter category off pretty sharpish.
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Re: Why do farang buy bars?

Post by 2/cb »

I hesitate to post as I'm still resident in UK, but a chap who lived in Hh told me that almost every farang-run bar was for sale. I do know one Hh bar owner, and he seems to be permanently stressed, and drunk a lot of the time. And he is skint.
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Re: Why do farang buy bars?

Post by theprice01 »

I think the bar owners on soi 80 seem to have their feet more on the ground then the ones in Bintablock.
Without naming any names or offending anyone, i just don't see how some of them come up with the 'For sale' price, many are over £10,000 (500,000B) AND then you have to pay 15,000-25,000 B p/m rent....am i wrong in thinking all your getting for your £10,000 is a pool table, a semi-stocked bar and a few bar stalls?!? ...no wonder why so many new bars are opening on railway road (7 in the last 6 months?)
When nosy expats ask how can i live here without working, i reply, 'well, while you worked hard for 50 years, i worked smart for 5 years' :D
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