News Forum - 100 masseuses in Phuket complain of 150 baht massage shop

[Thaiger]

Local massage shops in Phuket are complaining that another massage shop allegedly owned by a foreigner is offering unfair and possibly illegal half-price services. A coalition of about 100 masseuses has banded together to file an official complaint, gathering at Phuket Provincial City Hall to ask for action from authorities on the matter. Karon Traditional Thai Massage Community Enterprise Group led other Phuket massage shops in uniting against a shop that is offering massage services for 150 baht, half of what is standard for massage shops in the area. Protesters held signs that said “150” and “300” along with more […]

The story 100 masseuses in Phuket complain of 150 baht massage shop as seen on Thaiger News.

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[DoUKnowWhoIAm]

The real money is made on "do you wan' special?".

[jobapps]

Sounds like the time that mall owner, i think it was central in pattaya or phuket came up with the brilliant idea for shuttle buses and the next thing all the taxi drivers are protesting. Anything that makes peoples lives easier someone will protest if they start losing cash ,, 300 baht is a tad steep in thailand 250 is the recognised standard price.

I was only discussing this with my gf the other day ,. how once you arrive in mo chit bus station its very difficult to get out unless you know all the buses and might wait a while ..

The thai setup everywhere is geared towards making the local people money ...

thank god for grab .. but even in Chiangmai they rip you off with package deals sometimes more than the red buses .. its all about the money

However phuket is so full of horror stories im surprised anyone who has read up on it would go

[palooka]

Nice that it is not Farlung but 'foreigners' who are the baddies.

[Prosaap]

If they lose money because they charge 150 they soon out off buisnes but they are not looks to me the other shops over charge prices are made by demand but its different in thailand 

i use to buy shorts on the beach all the time i pay 120 bath for a short at one time i buy 5 she tell me now they are 150 bath because its low season and she not sell so much she ask more must be thai logic 

[KaptainRob]

Looks like KED have 3 well appointed 'salons'.  It could be a case of the foreign owner using the tactic to increase sales and take over opposition before increasing KED's prices once they hold a majority of outlets.

Japanese TV manufacturers essentially did the same thing way back in the 50's by swamping USA with cheap (at cost) sets and put the US makers out of (TV) business.  China does same.

[jobapps]

150 is a local price, these complaints are all about location nothing else

[Cabra]

When you have fewer customers (tourist) you lower price to get volume. 

[ThaiEyes]

All I can say is boo hoo to the complaining businesses. We have gotten 150 baht per hour massages for a long time in Chiang Mai, so why is Phuket so special that they need 300 baht? Same massage. I don’t go to Phuket for the massages, there are many other things more important. 

[PatrickSatoLee]

"It also impacts the confidence about Thai massage as well as the value of wisdom and science behind Thai traditional massage"

PLEASE . . . not much science or wisdom is needed at this 300 Baht shop, be lucky if they don't injure you . . . 

[Boddown]

Greed is the problem and always will be good competition is good for business but easier to just complain and take people for more money. They forget that it is the customers choice where they go and how much they want to pay.

[Pinetree]

2 hours ago, jobapps said:

The thai setup everywhere is geared towards making the local people money ...

The whole commercial world, everywhere, big or small,  is geared to making money.  What's the point of anything if that were not the case.  Market forces work, this is just one more example.  

[Pinetree]

18 minutes ago, Boddown said:

Greed is the problem and always will be good competition is good for business but easier to just complain and take people for more money. They forget that it is the customers choice where they go and how much they want to pay.

Its not greed, its commercial competition, that creates disputes of this kind.  Market forces dictate the outcome. Abuse of a monopoly position is almost always a prelude to increased competition, unless government intervenes, which is always a bad move, but one can hardy coitize the monopoly from maximizing its dominant position. . The rise of Uber and low cost airlines are great examples of the breaking down of abusing monopolies.  

[Chaimai]

1 minute ago, Pinetree said:

Its not greed, its commercial competition, that creates disputes of this kind.  Market forces dictate the outcome. Abuse of a monopoly position is almost always a prelude to increased competition, unless government intervenes, which is always a bad move. The rise of Uber and low cost airlines are great examples of this fact.  

 

 

I would say that monopoly = greed = monopoly.

 

Classic Thai cartel.  Keep the (extortionate) price up by controlling the supplier (Mafia style - taxis motocy etc).......Phuket is expert at it.

 

The last thing they want is competition.

[7summers]

If KED makes money on 150 baht/H its their business not anyone else. Its called competition. They forget that KED does not get 3 customers an hour 300 baht. They get probably 70 or so pr. hour divided on three shops. It makes sense and its a calculated risk . And like Boddown says. It is up to the customer where they get their massage.. Not the shops. 

[Janneman]

Sounds like a lot of these ladies are married to taxi drivers.

[Pinetree]

10 minutes ago, Chaimai said:

I would say that monopoly = greed = monopoly.

Classic Thai cartel.  Keep the (extortionate) price up by controlling the supplier (Mafia style - taxis motocy etc).......Phuket is expert at it.

The last thing they want is competition.

The last thing any monopoly provider(s)  wants is competition.  Its naïve to think this is any different all over the world.   It is not just a Thai phenomena, its an economic one. Adam Smith identified this fact in 1776.  

[EdwardV]

1 hour ago, Cabra said:

When you have fewer customers (tourist) you lower price to get volume. 

Exactly who is to say it’s below cost if the volume is there? Never mind the obvious tips. 

[Bluesofa]

4 hours ago, Thaiger said:

urging 150 Massage by Ked, a shop accused of being financed by foreigners using shill Thai people to skirt laws forbidding foreigners from involvement in massage businesses, to stop its price-dropping.

As far as I can remember, there's nothing to prevent a foreigner being an investor (non-working) in a company which in turn owns a business. Or has it changed now?

'to stop its price-dropping'.  If Ked was offering massage at 500 Baht an hour, there wouldn't be a peep out of the protesters, I'm sure.
 

4 hours ago, Thaiger said:

The protesters demanded standards and fairness saying that before the pandemic, 300 baht per hour was an agreed standard price

So as long as the price is what they want, then it's fair?

 

4 hours ago, Thaiger said:

But when you come in and turn [prices to] 150, you hurt a colleague in the same profession, you make him die alive

While it's obviously a Thai phrase, the logic about dying alive is the only option possible surely?
 

4 hours ago, Thaiger said:

The protest leader explained {snipped} "The shop that cuts the price is a shop with foreign owners who act like capitalists."

Aren't all businesses run to make money, isn't that the basis of capitalism? Or have i missed something more obvious?
 

4 hours ago, Thaiger said:

Therefore we ask to sеt a flat price which would be fair for all the parties.

I assume if there are other massages charging more than 300 Baht/hour, the protestors would make sure they reduced their prices too?

[HolyCowCm]

3 hours ago, palooka said:

Nice that it is not Farlung but 'foreigners' who are the baddies.

Better choice of word.

[Guest1]

2 hours ago, Cabra said:

When you have fewer customers (tourist) you lower price to get volume. 

That is, what they did about 1.5 years ago.

Some shops  started to charge 150 Baht for Thaimassage, even Oil went down to 200 in some shops.

And after a little while, because the other shops saw that that attracted customers (of the few available) almost everywhere they went down.

Even in Central, or better in Baan Beyond, they adopted the 150 baht price for Thai/Foot massage. (Out if business, now, methinks)

Now the same shops question the confidence in Thai massage if other shops?

The problem with picking up customer numbers is always:  That pulled more and more massage ladies back to Phuket. So again, the demand is not big enough, to get all enough massages a day.

Simple question of "to many wanna earn with a specific  business" , same like TukTuk/Taxi/.... : To many of them, not enough takers, so one ride a day must be expensive enough, to survive.

Aside, I can remember when the "Association" pushed all massage shops from 250 to 300 to 400 (oil massage).  The gurls in many shops werent happy about that, because the price "with tip" didn't go up. A thousand baht is still a thousand baht. Just the shop got 100 more, the girls in the end a hundred less. For the same job ;-)  

So what it is most likely about: the shop owners wanna make more money, I doubt that the girls getting150 baht more/at all, in 300 baht shops

[HolyCowCm]

Who actually is doing the complaining? The shop owner(s) who twist their angst for greed to make the workers get their pitch forks, or actually the workers that have their own brain?

300 per hour is actually high for CM standards, and anything higher is too much in my opinion. Phuket can be a rip off in many aspects. Even at 150 per hour the owner and workers make ok income, and if one thinks and filters it in, most foreigners and even Thai will give an extra little something as a tip to the massager. 

Say the owner has 5 workers and keeps 1/2 of the price of 150. Each worker has a customer every hour and thirty minutes. In an 8 hour day, just say they have 5 customers each a day and make 375 baht plus tips. The owner makes 1875 for doing nothing. Double the workers to 10 and that is now 3750. If the owner makes the workers split the tips and takes a cut, then this is more. Maybe it should be set at 200 baht per hour, but the thing is there should be no restrictions as should all be fair game for competition and setting their own pricing.  Now these cry babies brining in the word foreigner into the equation is just plain wrong.

 

 

 

[HolyCowCm]

9 minutes ago, Guest1 said:

So what it is most likely about: the shop owners wanna make more money, I doubt that the girls getting150 baht more/at all, in 300 baht shops

Yep!

[Guest1]

2 hours ago, Boddown said:

They forget that it is the customers choice where they go and how much they want to pay.

But that is the reason for all have to have same prices. If that overpricing is out of the way, everyone gets customers, not only the cheap one, because no one is cheap. Simple logic, very simple logic.

Come on, happy hour, 2 bars, both beachside, aside each other. One 80 baht/beer, the other 60 baht, same volume, same Chang.. where sit the people?

And foreign owned on top? That is asking for trouble.

You can see that with all businesses, that Thai and Foreigner are in competition with, example restaurants.

Or why do you think, you get sometimes resonable priced western food in foreign owned restaurants, but the Thai food in that restaurants is minimum on the price level, often 10 ior 20, xx%  higher, as in the Thai owned restaurants around? 

They just don't wanna have fighting with them . Aside that they often only offer few local food for the +1 of foreign man. And they pay it anyway.

 

 

[Guest1]

1 hour ago, Bluesofa said:

I assume if there are other massages charging more than 300 Baht/hour, the protestors would make sure they reduced their prices too

How dare you, dont give them ideas!

Because they would look at it, check if these shop makes money (has customers), and: "We all need to rise the price for Thai massage up to 400/h, oil to 500, ......"