Snowballs in Thailand, a business model
Lawn mowers in the Sahara will be in low demand, and the same goes for ice cube machines at the South Pole. There will also be a lack of interest when it comes to air conditioners on Spitsbergen or hand warmers in Singapore. And selling a ski lift in the Maldives? Forget it!
In the same row, a snowball maker (see photo) in Thailand should also fit, but nothing could be further from the truth. There is a lively sale with enormous margins and a certainty of continuous delivery. It is possible, but it is doing business the Thai way.
Snow and ice in Pattaya
Just outside Pattaya is the snow and ice paradise Frost Magical Ice of Siam. For adult Dutch and Belgians there is actually nothing to it, but Thai children in particular are amazed and have a great time, unfamiliar as they are with snow and ice and experiencing real cold. The entrance fees are high, but they have an unforgettable day.
Every child wants to do that, slide down an ice slide and throw snowballs, but the latter have to be made first and with your bare hands it is no fun. But there are special snowball makers for that, clearly mass-produced from China, which may have been purchased for 10-20 baht each. Normally you expect those things to be on or next to the snow terrain, to be used by children for a short while and then put them back after a good fifteen minutes.
Making shit balls?
But no, that's not how it works here. Clever marketers from the Land of Smiles have decided that you can only buy them, and that for 199 baht each, so for two children 398 baht. Quite nice, such a generous discount of 1 baht. But... what use is such a plastic thing once you're out of the ride? Making shit balls from buffalo excrement? If anyone knows, please tell me.
And then you walk out as a now broke parent with two of those clumsy things in your bag. But the faces of happy children who just had the day of their lives compensate a lot.
About this blogger
- Eric van Dusseldorp (1960) lives in Jomtien and works as an online day trader. In addition, he has been a checkers employee at the Telegraaf Media Group (five daily newspapers) since 1983. He enjoys digging up interesting facts from history, researching them and ultimately developing them into pleasantly readable stories on, for example, the leading history site Historiek. Other hobbies: checkers, writing (children's) songs and limericks, genealogy and writing on JOOP (opinion site), Thailandblog and several Facebook groups.
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A nice story Eric.
Especially the alternative use of the ball makers after returning to the countryside. Perhaps one copy can be sold to a somewhat conservative reader I saw passing by here recently. The sight of a back tattoo on a fellow Pattayan made him want to smear his own back with shit. A bit of a dirty thought, but each to his own pleasures. With such a handy tool he might be able to find an assistant more easily to apply the scented stuff? You won't conquer the second-hand market with it, but the idea fits in perfectly with the slogan: reduce-RE-USE-recycle
Thank you for your compliment.
I really only thought of and added that joke about the shitballs at the very last minute.
Great!
Snow and ice in real life, not from the freezer.
Even my wife once stood on the ice in the canal for an hour at the beginning of this century after I had jumped on it two meters from the edge, amazement all round for someone who had never been further than Southeast Asia.
That build on her head and that pain in her butt were less.
Pure fraud of course, when such a child starts to cry that he wants to make snowballs, daddy doesn't say no, and neither does mommy.
I think most ball makers don't even make it to the exit, plastic tends to break quickly when it's cold and force is exerted on it.
If not, maybe in the kitchen?
Nice story Eric,
But when those parents demonstrate how to knead snow into a “throwing snowball”, they also feel some nostalgia.
I remember we used to roll them into balls with our bare hands (we didn't have gloves!) because they were firmer that way.
Snowball fight; the last time was in the 80s somewhere in Tyrol.
OH, that sounds like fun to go there. I have a friend with an 11 year old son who has never seen snow. Her son is going crazy I think. And I myself have not experienced snow and -10 degrees in the last +10 years.
It is certainly fun for a Thai child. For Dutch and Belgian tourists or expats there is not much to it, you really do it for the children.
Isn't this a bit like the same nonsense to visit 'Fake Venice' in China? And actually you can do this just outside Hua Hin (Cha Am).
To be honest, I don't like it at all, money is made on everything in Thailand.
There is a demand for it. I saw many Thai children with their, presumably, reasonably well-off parents.
And what is in demand…
And in the Netherlands money is made everywhere, so that doesn't make a difference.