The Commerce Ministry has teamed up with consumer goods giants Unilever and Procter & Gamble Trading Thailand to modernise traditional small-scale retail and Thong Fah Pracha Rat low-priced shops, aiming for at least 10,000 outlets nationwide in the first phase.
Kulanee Issadisai, director-general of the Business Development Department, said the move is part of the ministry's ongoing efforts to strengthen local economies.
"Cooperation with Unilever and P&G will help Thong Fah Pracha Rat low-cost shops and participating traditional retail shops improve their image and business management via 5S," Mrs Kulanee said.
5S is a workplace organisation method based on five Japanese words: seiri (sort), seiton (set in order), seiso (shine/sweep), seiketsu (standardise) and shitsuke (sustain/self-discipline).
The method describes how to organise a work space by identifying and storing the items used, maintaining the area and items, and sustaining the new order.
The decision-making process comes from a dialogue about standardisation, which builds understanding among employees about how they should do the work.
The move will remove weaknesses and increase the strength of participating shops to attract more customers and raise sales volume, Mrs Kulanee said.
She said the department is committed to proceeding with efforts to develop business management at retail and wholesale shops and sustain community businesses in the long term.
Mrs Kulanee said local retail shops and traditional retail businesses have advantages over modern retailers in terms of better understanding of local demand for goods. Such shops also have closer relationships with customers while customers, who need not travel to far from home to buy daily goods.
The principal weaknesses of traditional small shops are untidiness and unsystematised management, Mrs Kulanee said.
The Thong Fah Pracha Rat shops are part of a 41.9-billion-baht aid package approved by the cabinet last August, aimed at 11.7 million low-income earners -- 5 million of whom live below the poverty line.
Apart from providing low-priced consumer goods, the package also includes allowances for rides on public buses and trains, as well as subsidised utility bills.
Under the aid package, the government transfers 200-300 baht a month to each welfare smartcard. Recipients earning less than 30,000 baht a year get a monthly allowance of 300 baht, while those with annual earnings of 30,000-100,000 baht receive 200 baht to buy discounted goods at Thong Fah Pracha Rat shops and other designated stores.
Each cardholder also receives 1,500 baht a month to subsidise transport and 500 baht for inter-provincial public buses, third-class trains and local public buses and electric trains.
The government has offered subsidies to participating shops for electronic data capture (EDC) machine installation.
The cabinet in January approved 35.7 billion baht for the second phase of the welfare scheme, aiming to help 1 million people cross the poverty line.
Some 5.3 million out of the 11.4 million recipients of the government's welfare and subsidy scheme are living below the national poverty line, earning less than 30,000 baht a year.
The second phase will see the government allocate 35.7 billion baht to finance 34 projects that aim to raise the income of low-wage earners.
The Commerce Ministry aims to increase the number of Thong Fah Pracha Rat low-cost shops in the second phase by more than 20,000, doubling the number of EDC-equipped shops to 40,000 by year-end.