Bangkok Street Food Vendors (SME) Business Continuity during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Aims: This study aimed at capturing the perceptions of Bangkok street food vendors related to the business continuity of SMEs during the covid-19 pandemic. Study Design:  The study design followed the 7 Ps of the service marketing model: product, price, place, promotion, process, physical evidence, and people related to street food.  Place and Duration of Study: The study took place in Bangkok, Thailand from Summer 2021 until Fall of 2021. Methodology: We included 200 participants (66 men, 124 women; age range 18-80 years) who were SME street food vendors, 40% of them were under 40 years old with 59% having no university education and 35% with a bachelor degree. Two-thirds of the vendors (86%) earned less than 500 USD a month. Results: In terms of product the vendors stuck to the favorites (mean 4.34 and SD 0.97) trying to maintain quality and quantity while keeping prices constant as much as possible (mean 4.35 and SD 0.89). The most effective promotion was the 50/50 government food substitute co-payment (mean 4.69 and SD 0.99). Place changed from sit-down restaurants to take-away (mean of 4.77 and SD 0.96) and home delivery via food delivery apps (FDA). Process changes due to social distancing included screens and fewer tables (mean of 4.51 and SD 0.65)  The number one physical evidence was wearing face masks and sanitization (mean 4.03 and SD 0.82). People changed in terms of customer mix with fewer foreigners and local tourists (mean of 4.77 and SD 0.75) as well as fewer migrant workers and more government agents taking a closer look at street food hawkers. Conclusion: Street food hawkers adjusted all 7Ps of the marketing mix to assure business continuity during the covid-19 pandemic as discussed above. Moving to food delivery along with face masks and social distancing were the biggest changes. These predictors, however, would benefit from further work to validate reliability in Thailand, ASEAN, and worldwide.