Making Money Selling BBQ in Issan

[cdnmatt]

The numbers you toss out that a person can make 25000 selling bbq sounds like bollocks. To make it simple say a person sells bbq chicken breasts for 40 baht. If the cost of goods sold plus overhead is 35 baht per breast then the profit is 5 baht.
25000 baht profit means selling 5000 chicken breasts a month or 167 a day. If a person works 10 hours a day that is 16 per hour or about 1 every 3 or 4 minutes. I have never seen any bbq place that busy.
Your numbers are wrong.

No, not the cooked sticks of BBQd chicken, and I have no idea what they make. I mean the actual Thai BBQ:

http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/admin/thailand_BBQ.jpg

But the raw meat / veggies / broth for it, then people take it home to cook up and eat on that image above. It generally gets sold by the kilo, and if you buy 10+ kilos a day, it's 100 baht/kilo. Go out in the morning pick it up, then spend a few hours chopping all the meat & veggies, making the spicy sauce in a blender, making the broth, then bagging everything up into 1 kilo portions.

Each kilo sells at the market for 150 baht. I don't know about BKK or Pattaya, but up here at least, going through 20 kilos during the dinner market (4 - 7pm) is easily done. That's 1000 baht/day, without problem. If you pushed yourself, you could easily increase that as well. Trust me, I was pretty gobsmacked when I found out the margins too. 50% margin on something everyone loves? Can't complain.

[latintopxxx]

Believe we are off topic......also find it difficult to believe that a roadsside stall can make 25000 margin; factory workers and convenience store emplyees make a 1/3rd of that...anyway totally off topic...

[anonone]

Interesting Matt. And I believe the margins you indicate. There is a lot of money to be had in the food service world if you can get it right....just like a bar. Right DaBoss??? :tongue3:

I have often had the Thai BBQ you show, but always gone out for it.

Do most Thai families have their own Metal BBQ skillet/pot thing? I remember seeing the clay charcoal pot out back at my BFs Isaan home, but don't recall seeing the cooking utensil.....

[cdnmatt]

Believe we are off topic......also find it difficult to believe that a roadsside stall can make 25000 margin; factory workers and convenience store emplyees make a 1/3rd of that...anyway totally off topic...

I don't know, that's what it is. For example, go to a cheap BBQ restaurant, and it'll be 100 baht/person, so let's say 200 baht/kilo. Buy it raw & pre-packaged at the market, it's 150 baht/kilo. Buy slabs of uncut meat, large bags of veggies, plus make your own sauce & broth, it goes down to 100 baht/kilo.

After thinking about it, I could see those stalls selling sticks of meat doing 1000/day profit easily too. For example, take the dinner market I goto, and there's two larger stalls that sell meats on a stick. I have no idea what the margins are, but lets go 20%. Each stick is anywhere from 5 - 10 baht, so 1 - 2 baht profit. That means all they have to do is sell about 750 sticks in one day to make 1000 baht, and I can easily see that.

When I get dinner for my dogs, I get...... 35 sticks, 3 bags of nam-dtap with bones, and a couple bags of rice. Just off me alone she probably profits 50 baht. And sometimes since my order is larger, and the stall is so busy, it'll take 5 - 10 mins to get my food. While waiting, I'll watch trays come off the BBQ onto the stall. Each tray has around 60 sticks on it, and sometimes by the time I get my food & pay, the entire 60 pieces is almost gone already. And it's just tray, after tray, after tray for about 3.5 hours (4 - 7:30pm) everyday when everyone gets off work and school. So 750 sticks is quite easily believably. Spot at the market is probably only 100 baht/day, and gas to power the two BBQs would only be 400 baht every 2 months.

And there's small breakfast / dinner markets like that spread around literally everywhere. Everyone has quick & easy access to a market.


Do most Thai families have their own Metal BBQ skillet/pot thing? I remember seeing the clay charcoal pot out back at my BFs Isaan home, but don't recall seeing the cooking utensil.....

Ummm.... I could be wrong, but I think it's rarer in villages. Kim's mom had one, but I never seen one at his dad's place, although I could just be blind. I think out in the villages BBQ is considered more of a special meal, as it'd cost around 400 baht to feed a family of four, and that's if you only drink coke & water, with no beer or lao khao. They can't afford to do that very often.

Out in the city though, and around where I live, yeah, I think pretty much everyone has one. Doesn't seem to be a shortage of them, that's for sure. I'm not sure why, but we have 3 for some reason. :-)

[kittyboy]

Your numbers are still crap. You are telling me an illiterate thai can make 20,000 baht a month selling bbq at 150 baht a kilo?

Meat is about 150 baht a kilo. You add in transportation costs, spices, cooking oil, spoilage, rent on the food stall...how does a food seller make a %50 profit selling bbq? Your numbers are way off.

You seem to be saying that if the thais just worked harder they could all be making 20,00 baht a month and be middle class. I suspect there are huge educational, class, and other structural barriers that prevent that from happening but I am not sure you are even acknowledging those barriers.

[Patexpat]

My only observation at selling 750 sticks a day at the stated opening times is that the rate of sale is 3.57 sticks per minute, every minute.

Plausible? Possible?

I really don't have an idea. But interesting figures if true ....

[cdnmatt]

Meat is about 150 baht a kilo.

At the market, yes. I don't know what you pay, but for me it's 140 baht for a kilo of excellent pork, 90 baht for a kilo of shitty beef that I no longer buy, 3 large chicken breasts will be about 60 - 70 baht, etc. That's at the market though. Buy from their suppliers in bulk during the morning, and it'll be cheaper.


My only observation at selling 750 sticks a day at the stated opening times is that the rate of sale is 3.57 sticks per minute, every minute.

Plausible? Possible?

Easily. My dogs can eat dry food today, but will get them dinner tomorrow, and count how much gets sold while I'm waiting for my order. I'm quite certain say 18 sticks in 5 minutes is easily done though. This isn't a lady doing it herself though. This is a family of three hauling ass for 3.5 hours straight every day. Not to mention I'm sure the majority of their morning and early afternoons are spent prepping for that night's market. So definitely long hours, but nonetheless, I'm confident they make enough to afford a comfortable life.

[cdnmatt]

Here's another one for those of you interested. 600 baht/day working at a BBQ restaurant as a waiter.

150/day as wage, and another 450 in tips. And that was on a Wednesday night, so I'm assuming on the weekends you can expect double or triple. 18 - 20,000/month right there, easy. Again, these people are poor because they're lazy, not willing to move to the city, don't want to learn, or a whole host of other reasons. The money is there if they want it though.

With that type of wage / tips, you're better off being a waiter in Thailand than Canada. Get one or two friends to share a nice 4 bedroom house with, and you could have a great life just off a waiter's salary here.

[anonone]

With that type of wage / tips, you're better off being a waiter in Thailand than Canada. Get one or two friends to share a nice 4 bedroom house with, and you could have a great life just off a waiter's salary here.

A pretty good idea...too bad for those pesky work permit / visa rules or I would give it a try.
Seems better than gong the bar owner route.....:tongue3:

[cdnmatt]

A pretty good idea...too bad for those pesky work permit / visa rules or I would give it a try.
Seems better than gong the bar owner route.....:tongue3:

Nah, it's just people were ragging on me before because I no longer have the same level of sympathy for poor Thais.

Just worked it out, and I guess waiter in Thailand would be about the same as Canada. Say purchasing power for necessities (rent, non-imported food, etc.) is four times here versus Canada. So 18k/month = $600 CAD * 4 = $2400 CAD. And Google just told me that's around what a waiter at a decent restaurant in Canada would make, so it's about the same.

So again, no reason to give anyone a free sympathy vote just because they happen to be Thai. Just being an uneducated waiter will still give them a half-decent life. Hardly poverty stricken to the point you need help to buy food, that's for sure.

[Neal]

Are you sure the tips are so high? The reason I ask is because I see these 10 and 20 baht tips from falang as well as the 0 - 10 baht tips from Thai and 450 in tips sounds awfully cheap. I mean I also see these boys bust thier ass all day long on the beach with the chairs and umbrellas and the tips taht are left are so bad. I know two people who go to the beach every day every week and demande, demand, demand. They give 1,000 baht per year and only at Ly Krathong. Another one comes every day and leave 100 baht per week which is 15 baht a day and you think that in the poor villages they get 450 baht a day and triple on weekends. Not sure if that rings true that I can believe that.

[cdnmatt]

and you think that in the poor villages they get 450 baht a day and triple on weekends. Not sure if that rings true that I can believe that.

I'm in a 110,000 person city, not a poor village. And I don't know, as per-usual I got pissed off at Kim, so he decided he was going to goto work. Told me he was going to work at a BBQ restaurant, and they pay 150/day. Went to work from 6pm - midnight, came home with 600 baht, saying 450 baht was tips.

And I don't see how that's not realistic. If we go out for BBQ, say the bill is 360 baht, we'll give a 40 baht tip. All you need is 11 tables to do the same throughout the night, and that's easily believable. We give say 40 baht when it's just 2 of us, so I'm sure when a family of 8 strolls in, they give out a decent tip, and probably more than 40 baht.

Or maybe he was lieing to me, and out sucking dick all night for 600 baht. I don't know, I just go off what I see. Nor do I really care.

[gaymandenmark]

Well, if I have been told the truth, from one of my friends who worked in a famous not off-bar in Bangkok:
Working from 4pm-5pm to 2am-3am, 6 days a week, one day off.
Salary 6000 baht a month. Then there is the tips that is spilt between all the people working in the bar from the cashier, the cook, the dishwasher all the other waiters and so on.
For one evening it could normally be anything between 50 to 200 baht for each, and sometimes more. Better if the customer gives the tips directly to the waiter if he deserves it.
Let us see:
6000 baht+27 days of work, on the edge an average tip 100-200 baht:
It is an income from 8700 baht to 11400 baht a month or something like 290-380 baht a day, if you count with 30 days a month, of course sometimes more.
Of course the amount is not stable and can be more, but I really doubt any waiter in Canada, the US or Europe want to work for that amount of money.

Maybe someone can enlighten me if I am totally wrong in my assumptions :dontknow:

But one thing I do know, he is not lazy, and really works for his money. Maybe I should tell him to go back to Isaan, not only because it is cheaper to live there, but also because he could earn more money. :dontknow:

[Neal]

Sorry CD did not mean to say your b/f was taking odd jobs jsut that there are many people working there and the thought of 450 tips for one individual and triple for one person on the weekends does seem a bit odd. Either way it does look like it might be very fun and one day would like to try it.

As far as the arguing, well it is not always odd as we are older, they are usually much younger and they always know better, now dont they? I am just finished a three or four day row with my boy and wonder how long it will be before the next one. :dontknow:

[billy2bs]

I don't know. I just don't see how 20 bucks a day US is something to crow about for someone who is working to take care of business. I get a kick out of some of my Thai friends who say I leave too much a tip if I am eating out which is always. It seems that 20 bht is what they want to leave. I know when I went to Sunni and ate at the German place, cant remember the name, across from the BBQ buffet, I had the Wiener Schnitzel and a coke. It came to 200-300. I left maybe up to 40 bht. But the place is not swarming with eaters so how can they survive? The waiters I mean. I guess they do but I do not want to swap places.
If I spend a day at the beach I usually leave 100bht tip for the boys at #25. Too much? No idea but it seems appropriate for my mindset. Tipping is always a problem. Where a dinner might cost $30 us here at home should I leave $6? I think the establishment should pay help. Sorry but I do not think I should make a waiter rich.
Finally from understanding the BBQ story...it seems like an awful lot of work for not enough return unless I just sit =back and am collecting the profits and doing no actual chopping.preparing serving. I'll just come by at night and collect the money and pay the help. Did I make $100 today?
Well that's my lazy mans take on it.