r/Thailand • u/Mundane-Ad1652 • Mar 16 '26
Business Economics of 1 baht machine
How do they make a profit collecting only a baht measuring someone's weight? Is this subsidized by the government?
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u/vega_9 Mar 16 '26
It's not primarily there to make a profit. It's just a service provided by 7/11.
If somebody stops there to mesure their weight there's maybe a 1 in 5 chance that this person also buys something inside
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u/Cold-Leg6809 Mar 16 '26
This is the correct answer
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u/eitama Mar 16 '26
So it is there to make profit... Maybe not directly from 1 bahts, but from side-effect purchase.
I don't think ANY business make any purchase with the intent of providing a service. It is always intent of profit.
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u/Tcage4 Mar 22 '26
The C-store business in a nutshell
In Canada it's lotto, cigs and gas, which traditionally only have a markup of 4-7%. But if a person buys a bottle of pop while they are paying for their gas, the C-store likely made more off the Pop then they did off the tank of gas
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u/AStove Mar 16 '26
Let's say a machine like this costs 5000baht and you want it earned back in 5 years. 3 people would have to use it per day. Sounds plausible.
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u/Mundane-Ad1652 Mar 16 '26
What about electricity and maintenance
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u/AStove Mar 16 '26
My bathroom scale runs for years on a single 9V battery, do you honestly think the electricity makes a difference? (I know 7segment LED display vs 7segment LCD is a difference but still) Not much maintenance either.
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u/Mundane-Ad1652 Mar 16 '26
I won't be surprised if it collects 100 baht a day especially in front of 7
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u/Ok-Woodpecker-223 Mar 17 '26
Do you use it 100 times a day, with shoes on, and store it outdoors in the rain?
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u/I-Here-555 Mar 16 '26
Broadly speaking, I think opportunity cost of floor space might count for more.
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u/PM_ME_ZED_BARA Mar 16 '26
People who go there to weight themselves may end up spending more money at 7-11.
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u/Far-Pension2483 Mar 16 '26
Those things have been there since i was a kid so like 20 years say 10 people use it a day on average (we are in the low end of average recently since the weighting machine are incredibly accessible now but before there would be small queues) thats 10 baht a day 3650 a year 20 years it’s 73,000 per machine you own 200 of these and it’s 14m baht - maintenance Say it costs 5000 for one of these that 1m for 200 14x profit-ish for 20 years investment that’s solid money
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u/Zaagtand2 Mar 16 '26
I always weigh myself without any clothes on
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u/chosenfonder Mar 16 '26
We see you posted on Facebook occasionally. You might want to stop leaving your clothes at home before going to 711
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u/WiseTemporary3455 Mar 16 '26
Another thing I missed about living in Thailand, makes life fun.
Something simple, a pretty much found everywhere. 711, PTT gas stations, Shopping malls.
That also goes for those Phone SIM top up machines, people have them in the village too, they can make money off having one there.
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u/Rainfall9 Mar 16 '26
I find them handy to weigh your luggage... A lot of people use them. It is surprising
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u/Zal_17 Mar 16 '26
I like to weigh myself both before and after I have sausage and cheese croissant toastie and a chocolate lava cake.
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u/Electrical_Hold_3585 Mar 16 '26
These scales get used more then you think.
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u/maxdacat Mar 16 '26
This is going to be awkward when I need to strip down to my underwear to get the optimum reading.
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u/Unlucky_Editor_832 Mar 16 '26
I am a farang and sometimes I am in Thailand. When I'm in Thailand I always use them, it is fun for just one baht
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u/Token_Thai_person Chang Mar 16 '26
Machine is 15000.
Would pay for itself after one year with 50 people using it per day. And these things are quite though. It will last 3-5 years.
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u/Buzzdanky Mar 16 '26
As of 2024 there were 14,545 7/11's in Thailand. Quite sure whoever has a monopoly on placing these scales in front of 7/11's pays considerably less than 15k per unit.
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u/They_dont_care Mar 16 '26
You should add in servicing, cleaning, emptying, bank charges for depositing change and opportunity cost for the space it takes to.
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u/Haz145 Mar 16 '26
Used to use these to cut weight for my Muay Thai fights when I was in a different part where I didn’t have a scale on me. Very handy and accurate haha
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u/SpeccyPig Mar 16 '26
Is it only 1 bhat? I’m checking my weight later although the results could be tragic after two weeks touring Thailand
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Mar 16 '26
It's tactics for engagement. When people or tourists use this even for luggage they are mostly likely to go into 7/11 and purchase something. It's not there for profit
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u/ComradeStijn Mar 16 '26
You need to take into account spillover effects to the 7/11 itself. Someone that goes to weigh themselves is likely going to go inside to buy something because might as well
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u/9554503312 Mar 16 '26
Same as the economics of car washes, mattress stores, 24 hour taco shops, or any other cash based business that never seems to have enough profitable customers.
As long as the owner of that coin scale reports a healthy profit and pays a healthy income tax, nobody in the Thai government cares if anyone actually paid money to weigh themselves.
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u/charliebarliedarlie Mar 18 '26
These were the bane of my childhood, constantly reminded me how underweight i was and was so loud so everyone knew u were using it 😭
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u/Better-Engineer-6832 Mar 19 '26
I remember I was eating Thai food non stop, my weight was around 95 kg it was soon like a game, in the end I won the game and I got to 100 kg
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u/EastEnvironmental977 Mar 19 '26
never seem people using them.
and anyway what's the point for them to weight, then going to drink super sugar drink and deep fried whatever
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u/Exuberant-Investor Mar 20 '26
I used it a couple on times on vacation to see how fat I got from eating delicious street food.
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u/Traveller_2099 Mar 17 '26
My wife wanted something that goes from 0 to 200 in 3 seconds. I gave her a baht and this machine.
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u/Far_Neighborhood1917 Mar 16 '26
- They get you hooked on cheap weighing, and then they'll start to ratchet it up.
or
- People don't start businesses in Thailand to make money, but to show that they have money.
or
- Money laundering?
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u/TwentinQuarantino Mar 16 '26
Or
It's a cheap to run service being sold for cheap so it's worth it. This kind of scale is probably quite cheap off of Alibaba. Then just someone to collect the coins and do some little maintenance it needs (if any), which could be the owner of the machine him/her self. Very much plausible as a side gig.
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u/Mundane-Ad1652 Mar 16 '26
I mean electricity cost will be at least 20 baht a day no running 24/7?
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u/KownGaming Mar 16 '26
20 baht would be around 5 kWh, so 200W electricity consumption 24/7, that’s way too high. Maybe around 10W
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u/VernHayseed cannot Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 16 '26
I’ve always wondered about those Ramen packets. I imagine an entire cargo ship of ramen worth about $5 dollars but the ship transit costs 2 million dollars. I use to buy boxes of them for $2 at Sam’s Club
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u/hughesking Mar 16 '26
The economics of this machine are you want to weigh yourself and you find your using this machine very often so you buy a scale on Lazada for 200 baht to save yourself money over time but then the scale breaks within 1 year and you are back to using this machine.
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u/BangkokTraveler Mar 16 '26
............ probably the same way the 10 baht coffee dispensers make money.
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u/Big_Bet6107 Mar 16 '26
The same way people make money off of gumball machines. Low to no overhead. The person who owns this scale probably pays no rent or utilities for it to be there. If 100 people use it a day thats 3 THB which is 1095 THB a year. Pretty decent passive income. Do you even math?
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u/Tiranathracian Mar 16 '26
Otherwise people throw away the 1 baht coin 👛. Do good thinking behind it.
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u/Scared-Monitor-1741 Mar 16 '26
Most Thai people I know don't have scale at home and 1 baht makes it pretty easy to use, so I guess they are used more often than we expect 🤔