Introduction

Abstract

Tintorn Samkamruen is piloting her four-wheel-drive through the dense Bangkok traffic. Although her maid still buys produce at local market stalls and the ‘wet market’, Tintorn likes going to one of the hypermarkets for their range and prices — and anyway, they are modern and efficient, like her. Usually, she goes to either Tesco Lotus or Carrefour, but a friend has told her about the new range of Leader Price products in the Big C stores. As an advertising executive, she knows that both Carrefour and Big C are French-owned and that Tesco is British, but she doesn’t see much in the way of national differences between them. To her, they are just a welcome addition to the choice available, and a symptom of her country’s progressive development. She hopes that the new zoning laws proposed to try to protect small local shops will not lead the foreign companies to reduce investment in Thailand.