SuperCheap Phuket rises from the ashes

Phuket Gazette – Friday, October 18, 2013 7:42:20 PM

PHUKET: At 5am today, SuperCheap re-opened on a lot nearby the burned ruble of its main building and began selling fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and seafood.

The re-opening comes just 32 hours after the devastating fire engulfed the complex Wednesday night (story here).

Tents and tarps are now set up to create a temporary marketplace in a field next to SuperCheap’s warehouse on Prachasamakee Road near the power plant in Koh Kaew.

The stalls are manned by SuperCheap employees, who are grateful to still have jobs.

Wipaporn Phiboon, a-34-year-old seafood department employee, has been working for SuperCheap for 11 years.

“When I woke up on Thursday morning and found out my workplace was burned down, I can’t tell you how shocked I was,” she said. “I couldn’t imagine my future.

“But now, I’m so happy SuperCheap is operating again. All of us here are SuperCheap staff. We still have jobs,” she said cheerfully.

“ I’m not going to leave SuperCheap. Most of my friends want to keep working here too,” she said.

http://www.phuketgazette.net/phuket_news/2013/SuperCheap-Phuket-rises-from-the-ashes-22539.html

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Fire at Phuket shopping complex

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Published on Oct 18, 2013

See the vast destruction caused by the massive fire which destroyed the main Super Cheap store in Phuket, Thailand. Two days after the fire, emergency workers were still dousing the wreckage.

Video: Phuket Supercheap Fire Aftermath

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George Thaivisa ‏@georgebkk 17h

UPDATE: 2,800 Phuket SuperCheap staff left jobless after fire http://ow.ly/pW0Sz

Thai Visa Forum

Posted Yesterday, 07:07

SuperCheap: End of a local legacy?
THE NATION

PHUKET: — After 18 years in Phuket, the main SuperCheap store and warehouse were gutted on Wednesday in the island’s largest-ever fire.

Located on a 30-rai (4.8-hectare) plot once occupied by a factory, the main SuperCheap store – a legacy of the Anantajaroonwong family – had grown from being a rickety warehouse supported by wooden pillars and a corrugated-iron roof into a buzzing economic centre for local wholesalers and retailers, with a daily sales volume worth more than Bt10 million a day.

Boasting branches throughout Phuket that also attract customers from nearby provinces, SuperCheap’s local business connections enabled it to offer various goods at highly discounted prices.
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The store, which offered no luxury goods, placed an emphasis on essential household commodities, thus enabling it to keep costs low. Only the cashier’s area at the main store was air-conditioned, for example.

SuperCheap’s other strong points included its smart choice to shift from being a trader to a goods producer – including investment in a rice-noodle plant and its takeover of a Phuket furniture factory.

Its decision to employ some 700 workers from neighbouring countries, particularly Myanmar, also served as a customer magnet, since foreign employees also encouraged Phuket’s huge workforce of immigrant workers to buy the store’s goods. It came as no surprise that Burmese was widely spoken in the store.
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The next challenge for SuperCheap, which has grown particularly popular in the past five years, will be the logistical supply of its local branches, now that its main store is no more.

– The Nation 2013-10-18

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/675423-supercheap-end-of-a-local-legacy/#entry6936535

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Bangkok Post Learning

Like This Page · 9 hours ago

Here’s a view of the damage at Phuket’s SuperCheap. No casualties (คนตายหรือได้รับบาดเจ็บ) have been reported but that did not stop some ill-intentioned (เจตนาร้าย) people from adding still photos of bodies from the 2009 Santika pub fire to videos of the Phuket fire. Story here: http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-from-news/375092/major-fire-in-phuket Photo by Achadtaya Chuennirun.

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Thanyarat Doksone ‏@8td 17 Oct

Whoa. This drone vid of Phuket fire aftermath looks like a scene from Hollywood movies. (via @bpapitchaya ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24FWAuHgEVc

ซุปเปอร์ชีปเช้า17/10/56

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Thai media said at least one thousand employees and shoppers were inside the complex when the fire started at around 9:40 p.m. local time (1440 GMT).

October 17 2013: It is feared that Australians are among those trapped inside the burning SuperCheap shopping centre complex in Phuket, where it is believed up to 1000 employees were inside at the time the fire broke out.

SUPERCHEAP