Small business operations in Thailand are all for sale

I suppose I should say that they are very unlikely to sell because no one is buying. What i should say is that these people, mostly of whom are not wealthy and were barely getting by in an already packed industry who have now seen their potential customer base completely disappear, do not have the cash reserves necessary to make it through an entire year without customers.

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If you look at island paradises such as Phi-Phi island in the south of Thailand, one might think that this is a fantastic place to be and it would be a dream or a joy to own a business there, even if it doesn't make very much money. In fact, the economies of these sorts of areas were already rigged against the little guy as the owners of the land seem to continually raise the rent on all establishments year-by-year in what they call "keeping up with inflation" but I suspect it is really making money off the backs of other people's labor.

This has been a real issue there for many years according to my friends who live or work in these areas and it is not limited to Phi-Phi as this is also true in Phuket, Samui, and Koh Phangan. The large multi-national corporations are able to weather some sort of financial difficulties by virtue of owning the land and simply laying off the entire staff when something like a pandemic that no one could see coming, but what about the little guys? What about the people that operate the small businesses and could be considered middle-class at best.

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These sorts of small businesses don't look like much and I'll be honest with ya and tell you that they definitely are NOT very nice, but if you want to stay somewhere exotic like Phi-Phi for a small amount of money, this is what you are going to get.

It seems over the years that these smaller businesses have been dying a slow death anyway as the government began to favor higher end travelers and has been actively pursuing eliminating the backpacker industry for as long as I have been here and well before that. What happens in these situations is that people who have sunk their savings into these businesses are squeezed out, lose everything, and a large multi-national corporation comes along and buys up everything until there is nothing but chains everywhere.

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I noticed the last time I was in Phi-Phi that the globalization of the island was already happening and 711's, Starbucks, and even a McDonalds had appeared on the island and mom and pop stores were slowly but surely be phased out. Is this really what the people of the world want? Do you really want everything to be corporate and for no opportunity to exist for the little guys?

I think this impacts me on an emotional level because I AM one of the little guys and I'd like to believe that there is some sort of entrepreneurial opportunity for non millionaires, but those opportunities are very unlikely these days because the system seems to be rigged against them.

Just today, I was speaking to a friend who manages a resort on Phi Phi Island and he was telling me that walking through the "town" on the island is depressing. Everything that isn't already shut is for sale (other than the large resorts of course, most of which have closed and laid off all the staff) and the businesses for sale are very unlikely to recoup their investments. In truly awful landlord situations, the owners of the land have zero sympathy towards and annihilated tourism industry and are kicking their renters out even though there is no one to bring in (no one is going to rent tourism land in what is at least for now a dead industry.)

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I don't have the answers and yes, I realize that everyone is suffering globally at the moment, but i think we have reached a very tragic tipping point for tourism in Thailand. One of which will see nothing but corporations dominating the landscape and the small business owners who by virtue of their existence were able to keep prices low for potential travelers, are being forced out of the game.

A lot of folks out there talk about global conspiracies as to why Covid is being dragged out and how a lot of it is politically motivated but I am more in line with thinking this could be one of the objectives as well: You are able to legally steal from the poor and middle class by making it impossible for them to continue financially then when things do open back up there are no options other than high cost ones. All the money gets siphoned into the pockets of already rich corporations and all of us peons have no choice but to work for them.

It's going to be a sad state of affairs when this country, which used to be a place that anyone with any budget could visit and it seems as though the masters are pursuing making it something that the common person like me, and probably you can no longer afford to visit at all. The entire world is being turned into a members only club, and you and I are not invited.