It goes without saying that everyone engaged in commerce wants to attract as many buyers as possible. Even if a high-quality product is being sold, it has to be presented in a way that catches the customer’s interest, usually by arranging it in a way to make it look most attractive.
Most shoppers have an instinct for recognising signals in the way that food is displayed. They are used to certain features, and to capture their interest the seller must keep coming up with new ways to show them.
One familiar sight is the pushcart selling food at the side of the road. It will contain a glass case in which there are tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, Chinese broccoli, cabbage, fresh coriander and spring onions, showing passers-by that it offers food cooked to order. If fresh beef and beef innards or fresh pork are hanging in the glass case and it also contains little tomatoes and unripe green papaya, with a wooden mortar and pestle nearby, customers will know that it sells Isan food. Their ability to deduce immediately what kind of food is offered comes from experience and familiarity.
There are other examples. A khao muu daeng (Chinese red pork over rice with sauce) shop with only one or two strips of the red pork hanging in the case with a small piece of crispy pork gives the impression that the place is not going to be very good. On the other hand, one that has clusters of the red pork strips and a big piece of the crispy pork suspended in the crowded case together with the sweet kunchieng sausages and a pile of hard-boiled duck eggs will promise a delicious meal to knowing customers.
The same is true of shops or stalls that sell khao naa pet (grilled duck with gravy over rice) or khao man kai (Hainanese-style chicken with rice). A single duck or chicken hanging by its neck in the display case isn’t too encouraging to potential customers. But at a khao man kai shop like the one near the Charoen Krung intersection there is no such problem. When it opens before dawn the display case is packed with cooked chickens.
Later the number of chickens diminishes, but the pyramid of chicken bones from those that have been eaten gets progressively bigger. This is the shop’s way of showing how well they have been selling. Displaying their offerings this way is one clever and efficient way of letting customers know how their business is.
Sometimes, however, the evidence can be misleading and customers can fall into a trap laid by the shop owner. There are khao naa pet and khao man kai restaurants that use a technique perfected long ago by Japanese restaurants. Realistic-looking but counterfeit grilled ducks and boiled chickens are hung in the display case in impressive numbers. It is a good idea to look closely at the display before venturing into the shop.
There are some selling techniques that have been used for many years, so familiar that they can bore potential customers rather than entice them. Making changes in these methods can refresh them, however, and encourage customers to take a closer look. As a wan phra (holy day) approaches, for example, flower stalls will increase the number of bouquets sold as offerings to the monks. These are generally bunches of purple orchids or yellow marigolds bound together with pandanus leaves. It is these that you see most of the time at these stalls.
But if you visit a fresh market or flower stall in front of a Buddhist temple in the North you will see something different. The bouquets are made of different kinds of ordinary seasonal flowers in various colours, tied together with incense sticks and candles. The effect is simple but beautiful, and people respond by buying them for the upcoming wan phra.
Then there are presentations that were fine as they originally were, attractive and appropriate to the product, but that have changed for the worse. Pla thuu (a local mackerel) used to be displayed for sale in small, round bamboo containers called kheng. They had been sold this way for generations. Today, however, they are set in foam plastic boxes, greatly reducing their appeal.
The mackerel were not the only fish vendors showed in kheng. The fish called pla krabawk, steamed Chinese-style, were placed in them too. This is an example of how an ideal, time-tested way of selling a familiar product has given way to an inferior one.
Banana leaf is a material that has been with us since the remote past. Food set out for sale on banana leaves gives an impression of Thainess as well as freshness. Fresh fish, for example, especially fresh-water fish from rivers, has to be displayed on banana leaves, and fresh vegetables, particularly local ones, should also be set on the leaves.
Some produce vendors extend this technique by putting little chillies in containers made from folded banana leaves. Offering them this way gives the impression of enhancing their value because they look fresh and carefully handled, so customers are willing to pay a higher price for them.
Thai snacks and sweets like khanom taan (made from sugar palm husks), khanom kluay (steamed sweets made from banana and coconut) and khao nio ping (grilled patties of sticky rice) would lose much of their character if they were not either steamed in banana leaf containers or displayed on fresh banana leaves.
But if the food being sold is seafood, banana leaves are less suitable than ice. The general feeling that seafood must travel for considerable distances before reaching the buyer and that ice is needed to keep it fresh. It is common to see stalls in informal markets in many places selling sea fish displayed in aluminium containers without any ice. The skin on the fish is dry, and even though the vendor claims they were just taken from the truck, they were obviously not just taken from the sea and there is little temptation to buy them.
The choice of material for displaying or wrapping goods for sale has both its practical and aesthetic considerations determining which material is the right one for which product. The cloth sacks used for dry rice is also suitable for dried chillies, Chinese garlic, onions and different kinds of beans and legumes.
Rice straw is right for watermelons, pumpkin squash and ripe papayas. It is a system with a very old tradition that is familiar to anyone who shops at a market. If changes or substitutions are made, there must be a good reason for it, or customers may well look the other way.
