Shoppers make last visit to Tang Hua Seng department store
Locals in the neighbourhood say they have had strong bonds with the department store for a long time
People flocked to Tang Hua Seng department store in Bangkok’s Bang Phlat district on Monday to take images as mementos before Tuesday’s closure.
Some of them visited the 12-storey shopping mall in the Thonburi neighbourhood for shopping items, which are being sold at discounts of 30-70%.
Locals Mon and Orasa told Nation Group media arm Kom Chad Luek that they have visited Tang Hua Seng since their children were young.
They confirmed that locals in the neighbourhood have had strong bonds with the department store for a long time.
Although Tang Hua Seng Bang Lamphu branch is still open to visitors, Mon and Orasa admitted that they felt regret for the closure of the Thonburi branch as they still have to purchase sewing supplies there.
Beverage vendor Thanwa Pengchui told the press that the closure affected her business because of a decline in customers, who mostly were department-store employees.
Thanwa said she had been an employee of Tang Hua Seng Thonburi branch before quitting the job to sell beverages.
She confirmed that she felt regret for the closure, saying that she would continue selling beverages in front of the department store to observe the situation for a while.
Tang Hua Seng announced on Friday last week that the department store in the Thonburi neighbourhood would cease operations from Tuesday onwards.
However, the company expects the shopping mall to be reopened soon, saying that it was currently in negotiations with new investors.
The first branch of Tang Hua Seng was set up in the Bang Lamphu neighbourhood of Bangkok’s Phra Nakhon district in 1962. The Thonburi branch was opened in 1991.
The company has been weighed down by losses in successive years – 122.47 million baht loss in 2017; 28.88 million baht in 2018; 93.52 million baht in 2019; 49.30 million baht in 2020; and 43.78 million baht in 2021.
The losses were a result of a decline in customers amid intense competition among retail businesses in the Thonburi neighbourhood, such as Central, Makro, Lotus’s, and Major Cineplex.
