Every Day 7-11: Thailand’s Mini Mart Mania

By Andrea Tee

Images Source: Google

As our days in Thailand come to a close, I find myself reflecting on the sights and sounds of our various destinations. From the hubbub of activity in Bangkok to the quiet beauty of Buriram, we are recurrently involved in a flurry of movement and change. It is thus incredibly important to, (when and where we can) establish little routines—small things that we can take comfort in and rely on. 

One of those things is 7-11.

There are about 6,300 7-11s in Thailand, half of which are in Bangkok. There is one on nearly every major street in the city, sometimes within 200 meters of one another. In one particularly surreal instance, we passed in between two 7-11s facing each other from opposite ends of a street. 

One might ponder the extreme popularity of this mini mart franchise, but after traversing the streets of Bangkok for hours on end, the appeal of 7-11 becomes significantly easier to understand. In the scorching heat of a Thai afternoon, these green, orange and white stores transform into an air conditioned oasis, beckoning to hot, thirsty pedestrians like a desert mirage (only far more satisfying). 

The sliding doors open with a whoosh, and you are instantly greeted with a blast of cold, crisp air and a kaleidoscope array of drinks. The variety is astounding. In larger stores, an entire fridge aisle is dedicated to dairy products, a few of which include fresh milk (13 baht) in various flavors and assorted yoghurts. Ovaltine (18 baht) my personal favorite, is malty, chocolatey and smooth as crushed velvet. Members of our team particularly enjoyed Betagen (affectionately referred to amongst ourselves as the ‘Wizard Drink’), a cultured milk drink that aided digestion and smoothed the passage of spicy Thai street food.

In Malaysia, 7-11s are boring affairs—stops made out of desperation and the lack of anywhere else better to go. Our selections are repetitive and limited, but Thai stores feature a huge variety of snacks, drinks and liquor. No proper food stalls around the area? There is always a freezer unit in a 7-11 stocked full of microwave meals, featuring Khao Phad Gaprow (rice with a basil leaf stir fry), the quintessential phad thai, rice with omlette and so on, from 25 to 70 baht. The counter also features a series of sausages, some bacon-wrapped and others stuffed with cheese and various other fillings. Just tell the counter attendant that you would like to ‘wave’, and a hot meal will be yours.

Suffice to say that many of us visited the 7-11 near our hotel with startling regularity, stopping by in the mornings for canned coffee and packaged cinnamon rolls, and again in the evenings for a drink or to top up our prepaid phone credit. These little stores became an essential part of our Bangkok routine, just as it appears to be a significant facet of the Thai city lifestyle. The store near our hotel was packed every morning with people on their way to work. Young girls and boys in their school uniforms linger inside, buying drinks and small food items, and in my limited experience, I had never encountered a completely empty 7-11. 

You can also apparently pay your Thai electric bill and purchase plane tickets from a 7-11, lending further credence to the fact that Thai 7-11s are amazing and will always, entirely without fail, continue to amaze me.

Andrea Tee, 23, is the intrepidest, terrificest, most ravishingly good-looking honors student on the team. (The fact that she is the only honors student on the team is negligible)