Grocery Shopping in Krabi

night markets in the town of Krabi

You can get a cross-section of Krabi’s best shopping when you go to Krabi town and get acquainted with the offer of the main street and the side streets between it and Joenranta. For many, Thai products are at least a little familiar in advance, and many know that things like pharmacy products, food, clothing, shoes, and a variety of valuable items from gold to jewelry are good shopping.

The best shopping in Krabi

If you manage to avoid pirated products, there are locally made products that may well be of Western origin but made in Thailand or other nearby countries, at excellent prices and good quality. If you want to find clothes that are especially good in hot and humid conditions, you should leave such clothes at home and look for new ones from Krabi. There are also good selections of shoes from sandals to high heels and sneakers, and belts, bags, sunglasses as well as many other accessories are clearly on display there at good prices and with a wide selection.

Crafts and art are good shopping in Krabi, and especially products made from local trees like mango and coconut palms like cups, sticks and decorations are good but not always completely mock priced.

Electronic products , which in the city of Krabi, with the exception of telephones, are not hugely received, are good shopping, as are their peripherals. Downstairs in the Vogue department store, next to the parking lot, there are stalls and shops where you can get everything from power banks to chargers and other interesting things. Electronics prices are good in Thailand, but cards don’t do much for Vogue downstairs stores.

Clothes made by a tailor are popular and are marketed especially in Ao Nang. Tailors and shop representatives are usually Indian, and they have price lists and information in many different languages, including Finnish. Prices are affordable, and tailors make clothes for both men and women in 2-4 days. The price should not be too low, and a costume made of a decent fabric should not be used for EUR 50, but it is better to be closer to a hundred euros. Even a garment made too quickly can be of a lower level than one that has been in circulation for a long time, as the measurements can be taken a second time for safety. In general, many people are disappointed with the products of tailor shops, but the quality is obtained if you do not chop on the offers of sticky tailors and do not intentionally look for suits made according to the model of branded products (such as Boss).

night markets in the town of Krabi

For grocery shopping: stalls, specialty stores, kiosks and supermarkets

Finding food from anywhere in Krabi is no problem, and many shops such as 7-Eleven stores are open 24 hours a day. During the season from November to April, everything is open daily, but during the monsoon season, many places close. This is especially true of beach resorts, which are only visited in winter, but of course there is life in the city of Krabi even in quiet times.

Various small supermarkets like 7-Eleven are so common that you will come across them almost anywhere. There are other shops as well, but in tourist places like Railay you should be careful not to pay 20 baht for water as it usually costs 7 baht (half a liter) and street vendors ask for 10 baht. In tourist locations, other products from tobacco to alcohol can also be overpriced, but 7-Eleven stores, Family Marts, and other chain stores are roughly the same price everywhere.

Food is also well available at the evening markets in the city of Krabi, both on the riverfront near Kong Ka Pier (daily from 5 pm to 10 pm) and opposite the market hall (Fri – Sun from 5 pm to 10 pm), behind City Hotel. You can get nuts and other delicacies from the market hall, but you should be careful with nuts both there and elsewhere. They can be completely overpriced, and you should pay attention to the size of the package. There are also other Asian delicacies in Thailand, such as bean-like beans, seaweed and the most wonderful local products, some of which come from Japan and Korea.

One of Krabi’s best places to shop for groceries properly is the supermarket on the ground floor of the Vogue department store . There is a wide selection of all kinds, and some non-food products are also available there. It’s a little tricky to find at first, but it’s right in the back of the mall, and it’s easy to get there if you get up through the parking lot along Soi 10 first and then go upstairs.

A couple of blocks away on the main street, at the corner of Soi 2, is another fine but significantly more expensive Grocery Store. Mother Marche is a chain with points elsewhere in Krabi. It is an expensive business selling great products with a lot of all kinds of homesick for foreigners. The website has exact addresses and map locations for all of its stores. The Krabi city store is open from 7 am to 10 pm, ie it opens earlier than many other large supermarkets.

In general, Krabi has no problem finding food, and in practice, quite a bit of anything other than drinks, snacks, and some other similar products become purchased from grocery stores. Krabi, like the rest of Thailand, has cheap food in restaurants as well as stalls, and both the market hall and the numerous evening markets have snack paradises to quench hunger, both great and small.

Alcohol and tobacco

Alcohol is expensive, and 0.64 liters of Leo beer, for example, costs 50-60 baht in the store. Of the local drinks, rice spirit (Khao Lao) is a local favorite and cheap, but you can’t really mix anything with it and the next day the drinks feel like it. The best local liquor is a whiskey called Hong Thong, which costs around € 8 (250-270 baht) for a euro bottle. Wine is expensive, even more expensive than in Finland, and it is also expensive in restaurants. Alcohol may only be sold in shops from 11 am to 2 pm and from 5 pm to midnight. A good specialty store with whatever wines and spirits there is opposite the market hall, and you can buy something from there even before five.

Like alcohol, tobacco is priced relative to other prices and wage levels. Tobacco costs roughly the same as in Estonia, but prices vary considerably by brand (100-180 baht). Tobacco should only be purchased from official stores such as 7-Eleven and not from markets or stalls. Tobacco must not be burned properly anywhere, and so many people in Thailand are introducing e-tobacco. In Thailand, the sale of e-tobacco-related products is banned, so it is worth taking your own liquids and atomizers with you on the trip.