Go Villa Market!

"I was a farang in a previous life," Surapong "Pong" Poosankhon, a.k.a. Mr. Villa, joked to me in 1996 when I profiled him for the Far Eastern Economic Review. The former butcher for the US Commissary during the Vietnam war opened Villa Market on Sukhumvit near soi 33 in 1974 and for the next two decades his small family-run store was Bangkok's only western-style supermarket.

Notwithstanding the Danish rollmop herrings, Greek filo pastry and homemade eggnog at Christmas, the true joy of shopping at Villa was always Mr. Villa himself. With his hastily hennaed hair and a broad smile, he was a perennial presence near the checkout counter from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. Whatever you needed, he'd either find it or order it specially for you.

By the late '90s Bangkok was awash in Thai and international supermarket chains. To varying degrees Tops, The Mall, Tesco/Lotus and Carrefour boasted hallmarks of western marketing techniques. Around this time, Mr. Villa's son and daughter returned from America armed with high powered business degrees and a mission to open more Villa branches. Their biggest obstacle was imposing late 20th century management practices on their amiable dad's one-man show. They obviously succeeded because small and medium sized incarnations of the flagship Villa are now scattered throughout Bangkok as well as in Pattaya and Hua Hin.

The homey disorganization and neighborhood grocery ambiance of the stores I frequent--Sukhumvit 2 and the flagship 33 branch--make a refreshing contrast to the pseudo Whole Foods displays and other western trappings of the other supermarket chains. At Villa the aisles and products get shifted around with confusing regularity and you can sometimes sniff the unmistakable aroma of of eau de bug spray. Yet Villa staff really do try hard to be helpful; at Emporium and Paragon small battalions of guards eye shoppers' movements with undisguised suspicion. (At Paragon I was loudly reprimanded for opening a plastic 6-pack of 1-liter drinking water bottles so I could buy just one!)

Villa also stocks items like Australian black licorice which you just won't find anywhere else. When this product suddenly disappeared from the Soi 2 shelves, I asked a staff member to call head office and he promised more would be delivered the following day. It wasn't and when he called again he was told supplies were suspended indefinitely.

Today Mr. Villa spends more time hanging out on the golf courses of suburban Bangkok burbs than at Soi 33, but his commitment to customer satisfaction lives on in his manager. (Alas that guy never invites me out to lunch or calls up to say hello like his boss used to.) The manager explained how Villa was changing licorice suppliers and assured me the new product would be in place soon. Meanwhile, perhaps I'd like a free sample bag to see how it compared to the old one?

Go Villa Market!