Fashionable firearms
A woman shows off the new triple-barrel water gun, a top seller this year.
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As the political situation in the Kingdom calms down, the festive atmosphere of Songkran has begun to kick in - and as it does, sales of water guns at Bangkok's Sam Peng Market are really beginning to pick up.
"Normally sales would have been good since early this month, but because of the political disorder people have only just started getting a feel for Songkran," said Nuanphan Larpsomboondee, a water-gun vendor at the market, a centre for wholesale toys.
She said daily sales during the week of Songkran generally hit about Bt100,000, but this year it was only about Bt30,000, on a par with early April sales in years past.
At Sam Peng, huge numbers of retailers from across the country have converged to buy water guns - mostly Chinese imports - at wholesale prices.
Prices start at Bt5-Bt10 for tiny pistols and increase by size, design and how wet your target gets when you hit them. Some big, modern water guns cost as much as Bt200-Bt400 each.
But the trend this year is for cute, fashionable firearms . . . and cheap ones at that.
Nuanphan said one particular model that was selling well was shaped like a shark and opened its mouth when the trigger was pulled. Another stores water in a backpack container shaped like Ultraman. But it seems this year's favourite, and it's sold out, is the three-muzzle gun, which boasts a plastic face-shield.
Porntipa Tangpaisarnnukul, who sells her wares at a Charoenchai wholesale shop, said that because of concerns about the political situation and a fairly flat economy, this year she had gone for small, cute and cheap water guns, steering pretty much clear of the big, expensive ones.
"We're not looking to sell lots of big guns this year, as we did last year. We've stocked guns that sell for about Bt5-Bt10, which parents can easily afford for the kids. So sales are quite good," she said.
Shopping at the Charoenchai outlet were retailers from Bangkok, Chon Buri and Chiang Mai - they'll sell the guns at about a 50-per-cent mark-up.
A seller who asked not to be named said retailers had been hesitant to buy lots of guns straight away because of the prevailing political uncertainty.
They worried that places where people traditionally congregate to celebrate Songkran might have been overrun by mobs of protesters.
"However, the atmosphere seems livelier now, and guns are selling better," she said.
Tippawan Boonpratuang, a ticket girl on a Chao Phya River rapid boat, was busy shopping for water guns at Sam Peng yesterday. She bought in bulk and intends to sell them to her colleagues working on the public boats, because they love soaking each other when two boats meet midstream.
Chatrarat Kaewmorakot
The Nation
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