Ever had a sudden hankering for Mahachai's freshly-caught pla tu (mackerel), or Trang's famous grilled pork? Provided you have access to the internet, and live in one of the many major cities in Thailand, the Thai Postal Service (TPS) has you covered.
As a part of their continuing efforts to evolve with the times -- as well as to promote Thailand's abundant list of famous locally-sourced products -- the TPS has recently announced the launch of their new Thailand Post Mart service, a new e-shopping service that lets you shop for well-known local goods from provinces all over Thailand. Transactions also can be completed online instantly via credit and debit card transactions right from the website, or you can pay for the bill physically from any major bank and over-the-counter services such as TrueMoney, Big C and Tesco Lotus.
Whether it be food, religious items, cosmetics or any other type of locally made or OTOP product, you can order and receive them through the mail within one-to-two operating days, after you have paid for the product through whatever means you chose upon checkout. However, certain freshly-made products also can be delivered in specific nearby provinces or areas, with specific cut-off times in which an order has to be placed for products to arrive the next day.
The TPS admitted in their announcement last Friday that the service is currently in a preliminary stage, and hopes to launch the service in full in the near future. You can register an account and use the service by visiting thailandpostmart.com. The site currently only supports the Thai language, with foreign language options powered by Google Translate (which means they generally don't actually work).
The site's front page contains an assortment of "recommended" products, most visibly the TPS's own postal products (like stamps, postcards and envelopes), as well as food items under the "Aroi Tua Thai" (Delicacies From Around Thailand) campaign, such as sour pork sausages from Chiang Mai's Vanusnan store to a fresh rice salad set from Trang. There are also several articles about the various other famous local products available on the website, which are also updated on the Thailand Post Mart Facebook page.
