Siam Paragon, Central may close doors

A second day of closure during Songkran would result in huge losses.

Kriengsak Tantiphipop, executive chief marketing officer at Siam Paragon Development, which operates Siam Paragon shopping mall, and Nattakit Tangpoonsinthana, executive vice president for marketing at Central Pattana, which operates Central shopping malls, said they were monitoring the situation and would decide on further closures on a day-to-day basis.

Siam Paragon was closed yesterday, along with five Central malls: CentralWorld, Chidlom, Silom, Pinklao and Lat Phrao.

Kriengsak said Songkran was the peak season for Siam Paragon, which normally drew 250,000 shoppers a day at this time, up from 120,000-150,000 on regular days.

"Normalcy should be restored as soon as possible, so that business can resume regular operations," he said.

Nattakit said it was difficult to estimate the damage but urged all parties to stop further hurting the country's image at a time when Thailand needed cooperation from all parties to survive the global economic crisis.

Gold shops in the Yaowarat area also decided to shut their doors for all three Songkran days.

However, Tesco Lotus has vowed to operate as usual despite the chaos in central Bangkok.

Senior vice president Darmp Sukontasap said in a statement: "We have made the decision to maintain normal business operations throughout the Songkran holiday period. We recognise our job is to provide a service to the public and that we should do our best to fulfil that responsibility. The situation that we do not want to see is a shortage of food or necessary household items for families during this difficult period. Consumers would suffer even more if there were hoarding or price speculation as a result of the political unrest.

"Meanwhile, we have allowed flexibility for our staff to be absent from work if they are concerned about their safety or that of their families. Security around our stores has also been tightened for the safety of our customers and staff."

He also said that like everyone else, Tesco Lotus hoped normalcy would soon be restored so that everyone could concentrate on efforts to revive the economy and increase Thailand's competitiveness in the global arena.