Carrefour, Tesco Lotus and Bic C are getting heavy resistance from small shops around Thailand. They are claiming that the mega shops putting them out off business and that they should not be allowed to be expanding anymore. Apparently they got an ear in the former government that was actually planning to stop more expansion in Thailand. In my point of view and many other Thailand expats living in Thailand its not the big stores that actually create the problem for small shops, its 7/11 but because that company is owned by a friend of the former PM no blame was put on them. Now i am all for expansion off this mega shops, who wants dirty, non air con shops without dated food products anyway? And to answer your question they were run down already before the mega shops came along. Now today there was another scream from the “mama and papa shops” they said that mega shops are selling under buying price. But for me that is not a problem its all good for me the problem is a few small shops with no “cultural” value can continue stopping Thailand from moving into a new low price century.