More Thai Petrol Stations Turn Into One-Stop Shopping Centres.

Byline: Boonsong Kositchotethana

Dec. 11--Petrol stations used to be a place where you topped up your tank and maybe found a soft drink and some sweets to appease tired children -- if you were lucky. Not any more; they have become almost fully fledged roadside markets.

Oil firms are increasingly turning upgrading their service stations by adding convenience stores, fast-food restaurants, car-care centres and even supermarkets promoted by Tesco Plc, the British retailing giant.

These new businesses have become vital to offset profit margins on fuel that the industry describes as meagre compared with spiralling operating costs and intensifying competition.

Keeping up with the trend in a fashion more spectacular than most is Shell Co of Thailand, which recently launched "new-look" stations that stress a retailing ambience.

Take the Shell station about 6.5 kilometres out of Bangkok on the Bang Na-Trat highway. It's more like a small retailing plaza than a service station with full-size facades bearing the logos of Shell's own Select convenience store, an A&W fast-food restaurant and a Caffe' D'Oro gourmet coffee house.

With a very bright, contrasting colour scheme, the station was designed to draw in customers. The fuel pumps are in a central location so that customers will have to drive past and notice the shops.