• 25 Apr 2008 at 3:46 PM

How To Profit From Global Warming: Thailand Edition

By

The streets of Chiang Mai, Thailand’s second city located near the northern end of the country, are nearly empty during summer middays. Most people you encounter will be tourists, backpackers and the drivers of tuk-tuks, the three-wheeled taxis that are everywhere in South East Asia. Thais know that the midday sun–or heated haze–is to be avoided.
So where are all the Thais? A great many are at home, safely shaded and cooled by those slow-motion fans that cool residents of South East Asia but provide no relief to visitors. But those Thais who need to get out of the house–especially those with some extra disposable income–head to the mall.
Recent visits to a few of the malls in Chiang Mai suggests that hotter days drive up mall visits. It’s been unseasonably warm in the last few weeks, and business is booming. If you want to profit from fear of imminent environmental doom, the mall is where to do it in Thailand.
I’m officially on vacation here in Thailand, so I haven’t bothered to find out who owns the malls or the bigger Thai stores. But I did notice a few American companies with Thai mall exposure: Dairy Queen, Pizza Hut and Duncan Donuts.
So the next time you hear about the “inconvenient question” you’ll have a convenience store answer: Long the DQ Blizzard!

–John Carney is trying to find ways stay cool in Thailand.

Comments (25)

  1. 1
    Posted by guest | April 25, 2008 at 3:56 PM

    is Duncan Donuts related to Dunkin Donuts?

  2. 2
    Posted by big r | April 25, 2008 at 3:56 PM

    rapid JP posts

  3. 3
    Posted by big r | April 25, 2008 at 3:56 PM

    rapid JC posts

  4. 4
    Posted by guest | April 25, 2008 at 4:15 PM

    What is the world coming to?
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080425/ap_on_en_tv/people_gary_coleman

  5. 5
    Posted by guest | April 25, 2008 at 4:20 PM

    “I don’t have any friends and don’t have any intention of making any”
    Mr. Pink, Gary needs a friend.

  6. 6
    Posted by man | April 25, 2008 at 4:22 PM

    one night in bangkok makes a hard man humble.

  7. 7
    Posted by guest | April 25, 2008 at 4:22 PM

    “I always feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders every day I get up. … There are days I don’t even want to get up.”
    - WTF? I thought that this only applied to Bennie or Dick. Is Gary Coleman really running the planet? Who knew?

  8. 8
    Posted by guest | April 25, 2008 at 4:28 PM

    @$:22 I really don’t like that song. I prefer the works of Huey Lewis.
    PB

  9. 9
    Posted by guest | April 25, 2008 at 4:34 PM

    one more post and i ask tim sykes to teach you how to make money in commodities

  10. 10
    Posted by mrpink | April 25, 2008 at 4:41 PM

    guest at 4:20-
    For shame… I don’t want to be his friend… LOL
    -mrp

  11. 11
    Posted by guest | April 25, 2008 at 4:43 PM

    Do it! Do it! I want to learn to trade commodities from Master Timmay (that’s what his loyal followers call him in the Far East). I’ve already seen Trading Places, so I probably only need Timmay’s “advanced course” DVD to be ready to trade! And I drink orange juice and eat bacon. Give us all another update on rice – or the Vietnamese Dong would work as well. Are you long or short on the Dong? Do Thai hookers even take Dongs – or just Dollars?

  12. 12
    Posted by Jesse Livermore | April 25, 2008 at 4:43 PM

    Duncan Donuts is a subsidiary of Duncan Hines. They specialize in cake donuts, but their margins have been under pressure recently due to the rising cost of rice flour and guava jelly.
    No connection to Dunkin’ Donuts which is Bill Clinton’s new favorite hangout.
    Jesse

  13. 13
    Posted by guest | April 25, 2008 at 4:46 PM

    Dongs is going down. They call this phenomenon ‘Dig Dong’

  14. 14
    Posted by guest | April 25, 2008 at 4:52 PM

    @ Jesse Livermore
    Does Monica Lewinsky now work at DD or has Bill and his impecable taste in women moved on to some other heffer?

  15. 15
    Posted by guest | April 25, 2008 at 5:19 PM

    h-e-i-f-e-r

  16. 16
    Posted by guest | April 25, 2008 at 5:21 PM

    Ugly has nothing to do with a blowjob.
    -Jimmy Crack Korn, East Texas Gas Trader

  17. 17
    Posted by guest | April 25, 2008 at 5:45 PM

    @5:19
    Thanks for the clarification on the spelling now get back to work because I want those god damn cows milked by 7:00!

  18. 18
    Posted by guest | April 25, 2008 at 5:51 PM

    @ 5:21
    I agree, beauty is only a light switch away.

  19. 19
    Posted by guest | April 25, 2008 at 5:57 PM

    i-m-p-e-c-c-a-b-l-e. Milk your own damn cows.

  20. 20
    Posted by guest | April 25, 2008 at 6:01 PM

    @ 5:57
    Fuck you and don’t ever talk back again. That’ll be 10 lashes, now get back to work.

  21. 21
    Posted by guest | April 25, 2008 at 6:09 PM

    I believe Dairy queen and Pizza hut are franchised. It is managed by Thailand’s leading food and hospitality company, Minor International. It is listed in the Bangkok stock exchange with the market cap of about 53 billion bath (~1.8 billion USD). They are building their flagship 70 storey residential tower under the St. Regis brand. The starting price is $1.2 million USD!!
    http://www.minorcorporation.com/
    St. Regis
    http://www.starwoodhotels.com/stregis/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=3199

  22. 22
    Posted by guest | April 25, 2008 at 6:42 PM

    In other news, 99% of all DB readers don’t give a sh*t about Thailand. You’ve posted enough Carney, you can call it a business expense, please stop posting about Thailand.

  23. 23
    Posted by guest | April 25, 2008 at 7:46 PM

    I wonder which IB made a killing from the rice price shock.

  24. 24
    Posted by guest | April 28, 2008 at 1:25 PM

    It’s a peanut buster parfait!

  25. 25
    Posted by guest | May 9, 2008 at 8:32 PM

    Duncan Donuts or not, Thailand is no place of doughnuts! Sure would love a Krispy Kreme here now and again, but one can’t have everything.
    Indeed, on one of my first visits here before taking up residence, a friend said that, “It’s going to be hot today so let’s go the mall.” Unless you’ve got air conditioning, which she did not, it can be a furnace in all these masonry buildings–all the wood is long gone.
    Oh, and if one wants to read about climate change in Thailand, there’s always http://www.thaiclimate.org.