Originally Posted by
prathetkrungthep
Also on a general point: Bangkok has not been "dirt cheap" for a while now if that is what you were expecting. On the streets you can still eat for relatively cheap, but we are no longer talking $0.50 noodles, but more $2 noodles. Those food carts are increasingly harder to come by and are close to becoming virtually nonexistent in the commercial district. Meanwhile indoors, the cost of living for the Bangkok mall lifestyle is getting closer and closer to Singapore or Hong Kong. This is a place with high wealth inequality and people are struggling with increasing cost of living with no meaningful increase in pay. A cup of coffee from Starbucks costs the same here as it does everywhere else. (Well, cheaper than at a Starbucks in Zürich—I'll concede that.)
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Made this observation close to 10 years ago. Was at the Mega Bangna mall (big mall near-ish BKK catering predominantly middle-class Thai clientele) 9 years ago. My wife and I thought prices, adjusted for portion size, was close to Vancouver prices at that time. As observed, coffees at Starbucks (the one as All Seasons Place where the Conrad was) was the same price as Vancouver (we don't patronise SB here, let alone there). Even meals at the food court around Rama IV patronised by locals ran at least 100 THB at that time.