Pattaya
officials check on New Year gift baskets throughout town.
Vimolrat Singnikorn
Public Health Department officers are checking holiday
gift baskets on sale throughout Pattaya to make sure they contain no alcohol
and only fresh food.
Carrying out a Dec. 14 Public Health Ministry directive,
city inspectors checked out baskets on sale at 11 well-known department
stores to warn shopkeepers that any store found selling gift sets containing
alcohol would face fines up to 60,000 baht.
Public heath officer Buppha Songsakulchai also said city
officials advised marketers that they’d received complaints last year that
many baskets were filled with products near their expiration dates. This
year, the city is checking buyers get full value from their baskets. All
products inside gift baskets will have to contain clearly marked expiration
dates, he said.
A random survey showed shopkeepers aren’t too concerned
with the government inspections. A Naklua storeowner said he was certain
none of the baskets in his shop contained alcohol, but that it wasn’t really
an issue anyway: If customers want booze with their biscuits, the shopkeeper
said he simply sells them alcohol separately, and the customer then adds
them to the gift basket after sale.