Thailand is a beautiful place, but owning a bar was my own personal nightmare

Doc67 · Post by **Doc67** » Fri Sep 11, 2020 9:42 am

Khmu Nation wrote: ↑Fri Sep 11, 2020 8:33 am The only happy western bar owners I have ever met over here, or indeed anywhere, all don't drink. If you do indulge it will end in disatser. Add a posse of hookers in the mix and its mayhem.

Let's face it owning a bar is akin to being a drug dealer so the same rules apply. See The 10 Crack Commandments by Notorious B.I.G. below for further details. Just change the drug references to alcohol.

Rule Number Uno, never let no one know
How much dough you hold cause you know
The cheddar breed jealousy 'specially
If that man fucked up, get yo' ass stuck up
Number 2, never let 'em know your next move
Don't you know Bad Boys move in silence and violence?
Take it from your highness
I done squeezed mad clips at these cats for their bricks and chips
Number 3, never trust no-bo-dy
Your moms'll set that ass up, properly gassed up
Hoodied and masked up, shit, for that fast buck
She be laying in the bushes to light that ass up
Number 4, I know you heard this before
Never get high on your own supply
Number 5, never sell no crack where you rest at
I don't care if they want a ounce, tell 'em bounce!
Number 6, that goddamn credit? Dead it
You think a crackhead paying you back, shit forget it!
7, this rule is so underrated
Keep your family and business completely separated
Money and blood don't mix like 2 dicks and no bitch
Find yourself in serious shit
Number 8, never keep no weight on you!
Them cats that squeeze your guns can hold jums too
Number 9 shoulda been Number 1 to me,
If you ain't gettin' bagged stay the fuck from police
If niggas think you snitchin' they ain't trying to listen
They be sittin' in your kitchen, waiting to start hittin'
Number 10, a strong word called consignment
Strictly for live men, not for freshmen
If you ain't got the clientele, say "hell no!"

Well, B.I.G. ain't got no badass MBA, that's for sure.

Doc67 · Post by **Doc67** » Fri Sep 11, 2020 9:53 am

Kung-fu Hillbilly wrote: ↑Tue Sep 03, 2019 12:47 pm
Image from Asia Travel Guide

By: Gordon Hua Hin
July 9, 2019

It looks like fun, sitting in a bar, drinking, chatting and having a good time every day surrounded by beautiful women.I was dead wrong.

The truth is, if I wasn’t at the bar, it failed. Some nights I would be lucky to make one thousand baht if I decided to take a night off without being there hosting. That was with over a dozen girls working for me most nights. So, I quickly began working seven days a week….much more than I had before my retirement.

I lost count of the number of times a drunk didn’t want to pay his bill or wanted to challenge me to a fight over a small amount. Some of these were even so-called friends of mine.

The hours and drinking began to put a serious strain on the relationship between me and my wife. I became verbally abusive and lost sight of who I was. I began to consider my drinking companions as more important than my wife, who at this point mostly stayed at home with our young child while I got drunk at the bar every single night.

This tale doesn’t even begin to get into the number of times local officials demanded more cash from me simply to stay open, false promises and poor maintenance from repairmen, or the constant headache of bar politics in which the owner of the beer bar near me seemed to hate my guts simply because I was busier than him and would constantly try to sabotage me or challenge me to fights.

One night, I had enough of the mamasan and her poor performance and fired her on the spot. She had been deserving of it for a long time, but I made the mistake of doing so drunk. She left and took the entire staff with her.

Full https://www.pattayaunplugged.com/submis ... nightmare/

Good story, nothing new.

I've read a few of those "guides" to Thailand and the bar scenes and retirement and all say, without exception, do not buy a bar.

Even if you ran a bar in your home country - which ought to have put you on notice that it's not all it's cracked up to be - that experience will have little or no relationship or value to running a hooker parlour with booze sales in Pattaya.

The thought of having to go to the same bar, every day, for 12 hours each time ought to have crossed peoples mind. The thought of going to the same bar, 6 days a week for 8 hours (the bare minimum for a bar owner really) ought to be enough to put people off. The boredom will be enough to drive you to drink, and is generally does. I knew a bar owner with a bar in LK Metro who spent most of his early evenings in other bars because " we don't get busy till about 10". He's back in the UK now - and skint.

lagrange · Post by **lagrange** » Fri Sep 11, 2020 10:02 am

I know my experience in owning a bar was in a first world country (Auckland, NZ) but you get the same issues everywhere. If I took a night off the revenue would drop, money and stock disappear. Arguments with drunks, fights breaking out at closing time, long hours, neglected home life. Freelancers wanting to hang out looking for customers. But I had some cast iron rules. 1. I never ever drank alcohol at my own bar. 2. My mates never drank for free. Also I closed on Mondays , otherwise I would have gone postal. Even so, after 3 years I was sick of it and sold up to just about recover my investment, and yes lost my marriage along the way. I can only imagine how much tougher it would have been in Thailand. Good on you for giving it a go mate, at least you tried. Ignore the armchair entrepreneurs, it's all part of life's rich tapestry.

AndyKK · Post by **AndyKK** » Fri Sep 11, 2020 11:59 am

Like doc I have known a few bar owners on LK metro and 210 Soi Buakhao in Pattaya with a few more exceptions, most of the owners also had other ventures and not only the bar, some owning enterprises back in their own countries, most of them I knew, were successful because of the fact they had alternative incomes, so that didn’t depend purely on the bar and its takings. Being fluent in the language would certainly go a long way in dealing with staff and the authorities. But in the end any bar or business, anywhere in the world will only work, if they were to have paying customers.
if you’re in the right area and have plenty tourists being a westerner bar, then having what the customer wants, half the job is done. What is the most difficult is maintaining the customers, with what you are selling, you would expect trouble at times. There will be also compertition from other bar owners, with both parties wanting the paying clientele.
But, the biggest problems in many cases of one’s bar, is of course the “expat”. I don’t know why, or do I understand when most places are of somewhere to enjoy, but even looking at the post replies people tend to want the bars of other foreigners too fail, I rarely see a post of good words towards an establishment of this nature.

Alex · Post by **Alex** » Sat Sep 12, 2020 7:49 am

I guess it takes (attracts) a certain type. I've lived in Thailand for 14 years and unsurprisingly I've been to many bars over the years, but for the life of me, the thought of running one has never crossed my mind.

explorer · Post by **explorer** » Sat Sep 12, 2020 12:27 pm

It is amazing how many foreigners come to Cambodia and want to make money. What can they do? If they think they are not good enough to teach English, many of them want to own a bar. Then a lot of them lose money. Some just cover their costs.

Post by **Clutch Cargo** » Sat Sep 12, 2020 2:12 pm

Reminds me of a story a bar owner in BKK told me back in the late 80s. Customers started to complain his drinks weren't strong enough. Turns out when he wasn't on deck, the staff were helping themselves and diluting the bottles down.

shnoukieBRO · Post by **shnoukieBRO** » Sat Sep 12, 2020 7:25 pm

I'm sure it must have been possible earlier in Pattaya. But the last few years there's been a rise in bars and the place is Saturated.

Of course the current poor exchange rates and zero customers due to covid restrictions makes now a no go.

But it would be good to hear from those that have found the magical formula of running a successful bar in Pattaya especially if they didn't have to be there all the time and had the right staff running it??

Jerry Atrick · Post by **Jerry Atrick** » Sat Sep 12, 2020 7:29 pm

Well, I enjoyed my years with my bar in PP, & would do again.

But, I wouldn't work full time in another one should I open a place again.

Robins · Post by **Robins** » Sat Sep 12, 2020 7:37 pm

Kung-fu Hillbilly wrote: ↑Tue Sep 03, 2019 12:47 pm
Image from Asia Travel Guide

By: Gordon Hua Hin
July 9, 2019

It looks like fun, sitting in a bar, drinking, chatting and having a good time every day surrounded by beautiful women.I was dead wrong.

The truth is, if I wasn’t at the bar, it failed. Some nights I would be lucky to make one thousand baht if I decided to take a night off without being there hosting. That was with over a dozen girls working for me most nights. So, I quickly began working seven days a week….much more than I had before my retirement.

I lost count of the number of times a drunk didn’t want to pay his bill or wanted to challenge me to a fight over a small amount. Some of these were even so-called friends of mine.

The hours and drinking began to put a serious strain on the relationship between me and my wife. I became verbally abusive and lost sight of who I was. I began to consider my drinking companions as more important than my wife, who at this point mostly stayed at home with our young child while I got drunk at the bar every single night.

This tale doesn’t even begin to get into the number of times local officials demanded more cash from me simply to stay open, false promises and poor maintenance from repairmen, or the constant headache of bar politics in which the owner of the beer bar near me seemed to hate my guts simply because I was busier than him and would constantly try to sabotage me or challenge me to fights.

One night, I had enough of the mamasan and her poor performance and fired her on the spot. She had been deserving of it for a long time, but I made the mistake of doing so drunk. She left and took the entire staff with her.

Full https://www.pattayaunplugged.com/submis ... nightmare/

Firing one Thai or having them quit over something silly and taking the entire staff with them is common here. I lived in the Hillside Resort off Pratumak Soi 2 and he lost his entire staff over a silly problem with one employee. I lost a live-in since they were begging her to help out at the counter and she refused (they were not allowed to work the counter in their own hotel). I asked her nicely to help out and when she refused fired her from her 20,000 Baht a month job annoying me with the TV.

Thailand is a beautiful place, but owning a bar was my own personal nightmare

Re: Thailand is a beautiful place, but owning a bar was my own personal nightmare

Re: Thailand is a beautiful place, but owning a bar was my own personal nightmare

Re: Thailand is a beautiful place, but owning a bar was my own personal nightmare

Re: Thailand is a beautiful place, but owning a bar was my own personal nightmare

Re: Thailand is a beautiful place, but owning a bar was my own personal nightmare

Re: Thailand is a beautiful place, but owning a bar was my own personal nightmare

Re: Thailand is a beautiful place, but owning a bar was my own personal nightmare

Re: Thailand is a beautiful place, but owning a bar was my own personal nightmare

Re: Thailand is a beautiful place, but owning a bar was my own personal nightmare

Re: Thailand is a beautiful place, but owning a bar was my own personal nightmare

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