Zig-zagging up and down escalators to compare prices on hard drives and video cards while weaving past hawkers chanting “sexy movie, you buy.” Shopping for hardware, pirated software, and VCDs at Pantip Plaza was once a Bangkok rite of passage.
That era came to an end a couple of years ago, and now the former IT mall on Phetchaburi Road’s next chapter is reopening as a “wholesale food department store” called AEC Food Wholesale Pratunam.
Pantip Plaza (really Pantip Pratunam, as there are also Pantips in Ngamwongwan, Bang Kapi and Chiang Mai) had been dead for about five years. It was wounded by the transition to online shopping and died after a THB300 million (US$8.7 million today) renovation that took two years, during which 80% of its IT tenants left and visitors fell 60%. When it fully reopened in 2016, they did not return.
The owners of the 67,000sqm space have lurched between plans since. Asset World Corp. first announced in late 2020 that it had partnered with Chinese investors to turn it into the succinctly named “AEC Trade Center – Pantip Wholesale Destination,” some kind of marketplace it thought would lure online sellers looking for physical space. That plan didn’t survive the pandemic.
Yesterday, Asset World (AWC) announced that with its partner Yiwu (“the world’s largest wholesale market for miscellaneous goods from Yiwu, China!”) that the new AEC Food Wholesale Pratunam will be some kind of wholesale food marketplace when it opens later this year. AWC CEO Wallapa Traisora used the words “hub” and “synergy” enough times to doubt they are really sure what it will be. But with the nation’s largest corporate conglomerates signed on; from CPF and ThaiBev to Thai Union, Betagro, and Tipco; it really doesn’t have to make sense to make money.
“AWC has confidence in the synergy of collaboration with the public and private sectors to drive Thailand forward as a regional food wholesale hub, connecting the wholesale Eco-system to meet all future business needs and enhance business opportunities without limits,” Wallapa said. “Through the development of a wholesale platform to connect online-to-offline integration (O2O Integration) we will help increase the potential for buyers and sellers to make transactions between each other more conveniently throughout the process, from product sourcing to delivery and payment.”
Asset World is the property arm of TCC Group, which like Chang-making megabrewer Thai Beverage, is owned by billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi. Its property portfolio includes the riverside Asiatique mall and Gateway Ekamai.
The company said that the new project’s investment value would exceed THB6.5 billion (US$190 million) to “INTEGRATED WHOLESALE PLATFORM FOR NON-STOP OPPORTUNITY.” It will have three components: “O2O Integration” that connects online and offline platforms, what sounds like space to sell its partners’ stuff, and “limitless business opportunities through collaboration from the public, foreign Chambers of Commerce … and private sector including Yiwu.”
We haven’t heard anything this many buzzwords in one place since last month’s Really Cool Airlines.
But, as some have observed online, maybe Sek Loso will finally change his mind about going there.
“(I’m not going to) Pantip” by Sek Loso
