One of Bangkok’s biggest booze delivery services near the end of its first decade is retooling its retail presence due to pandemic pain and a marketplace that still favors monopolists.
What grew from a delivery service for hard-to-find beers to fine spots for chilling out with quality drinks of all types, Wishbeer will move its one store across Sukhumvit Road into a smaller space next month to cut costs while seeking to draw more franchisees after sales collapsed upward of 70% last year.
“We sold over 100,000 pints of draught beer in 2019, but only 30,000 in 2020,” founder Jerome Le Loeur said.
But while the shutdowns have certainly put the hurt on bars, Le Loeur said that’s only part of the equation, as growth continues to be hampered by rules favoring only the largest corporations.
“Small distributors and retailers like us have a hard…
