IF YOU HAVE NEVER ATTENDED ONe OF THESE SALES, THEY ARE FANTASTIC... you cannot go to the sale expecting to find any particular article, but the merchandise is representative of the goods carried in the store and there is plenty of it if you arrive early..

most everything is at least 1/2 price and many things are discounted more....

available in the past have been: ties, t-shirts, fabric by the yard, redi-made clothing, placemat sets (cotton and silk), hankies, pillow covers, odd items, purses, pillow stuffers, and many more items....

this is a huge sale and jammed with people, mostly thais....you have to be very aggressive...grab what you think you may want and then retreat to a corner and sort out what you really want....they give you huge plastic bags to put your items in until the sorting process begins (everyone does this)....it is cash or credit card and vat refunds are available, as are boxes for gifts....

IT IS SIMPLY A FABULOUS SALE....

the dates that i have been sent for 2004 are as follows (i only asked for may/june, so there may be dates before that--send them an e-mail and ask):

may 2
june 6
sept 5 & 12
dec 5, 12, and 19

all sales are at: BITEC Hall; 8 Bangna Trad Rd (K.M. 1); Bangna, Bangkok 10260 Tel: 662-749-3939
i believe this is the large trade center which is out towards the airport (if so there is a decent restaurant there), but i am not sure...if so, it is about a 20 minute taxi ride via the toll road from sukumvit, soi 2....the sales used to be held in the queen S. convention center in town, but evidently are no longer...

enjoy

now of course i am in trouble as we were to be in bali on this june date and my wife wants to change our whole trip around....

thank you so much for the info. We may be there at the end of Apr, so this will come in handy.

This sounds like a great find - do you have an email address for them?

Appreciate the information! I may be back in Bangkok in June, or possibly September. I have several Jim Thompson purses/billfolds/cosmetics bags and they are all exceptional quality and I get compliments all the time! Buying a half price would be super.

the e address is: i can't believe it it is in thai....now that i look at it...lets see recently deleated mail...oh yes it says: [email protected]

i also read about 6 months ago on fodors that there are 2 discount outlets in bkk for JT...one is on the same street as the main store and one is on a high numbered soi off of sukumvit....the posting said the addresses were available at the regular stores...

we cannot rearrange our trip to be there on june 6...bali calls...so have fun and buy, buy, buy....we spent about $500 last time---did you say extra suitcase???

Yes, on a previous message, I posted the address of the two outlet stores. If I can find the message I'll top it. The outlet stores are great. One (near the main store) only has yardgoods. The other has a wide variety of Jim Thompson merchandise. We bought lots.

the funny thing is my girl fraind's brother is one of the salesman at the Sarowong outlet. but I have yet too meet him though.

Here's the info from my December post: Another note on Bangkok shopping: There have been rumors on this board of a Jim Thompson outlet store. Indeed, there are two of them! One, which has only yard goods, is located just two blocks from the main Jim Thompson store at 149/4-6 Surawong Road. The other outlet has yard goods plus other Jim Thompson items like T-shirts, purses, jewelry boxes, stuffed animals, etc like the main store has. Prices about half of retail. Any Jim Thompson store will have a card showing the location of the two outlets with a map and directions in Thai.

Hi. I live in Bkk and can tell u the outelt is a FAR more pleasant shopping experience than the sales which are VERY crowded. The advantage of the sale is sometimes there is more stuff but the unsold stuff anyway goes to the outlet. The outlet on Soi 93, Sukhumvit is not far from On Nut BTS station (about 50 baht by Taxi from On Nut) so Bob, suggest u don't rearrange your Bali plans. On a weekday mornin the outlet is gen pretty empty, staff is helpful and is easy to browse. Also, the outlet is a good place to go back e.g. if u are in Bkk again after a few weeks as stuff keeps changing - they move stuff there pretty regularly.

the reply from the sewing room is: "that's good info and good to know"...this in response to the outlet info above...we will get the placemats we don't need at the outlet and can relax on bali for our full time...i did point out we could pay full price for them.....

Do you bargain at the outlet store?
Is it far to walk from the Onnut Station?

Also on my map it indicates a levi's Outlet- anyone been there?

All of the Jim Thompson stores are fixed price. No bargaining.