New street food sellers set up where the same dish is already sold and only see it in a month of losses
A couple opened a rice-noodle stall in front of a market, wrote down income, costs and profit every day, and were about 25,000 baht in the red after month one with roughly 30,000 left; 4 or 5 long-established noodle sellers were nearby, the menu shrank to 3 or 4 dishes, and food was left over daily. A grilled-pork-skewer seller of a year said sales faded from about month 8 as five rivals opened in town, and he could not tell why. Another poster notices laundromats and pharmacies appearing every 3 to 5 km and asks if the market is already full.
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5 ways to tackle it
Camera and vision
Walk Count: film a 3-minute walk past the spot, it counts rival stalls and queues
The seller films a slow walk past the intended spot at lunch. Vision counts stalls selling the same dish, how many people queue at each and how many walk by, so the market is measured before a baht is spent.
Build with Claude vision or YOLO, video frames, mobile web
Hardware and sensors
Passer Counter: a counter at the stall that compares people passing with people buying
A cheap infrared sensor counts people passing and a big button counts sales. An e-ink screen shows conversion by hour, so the seller learns whether the problem is nobody stopping or nobody buying.
Build with ESP32, PIR or IR sensor, button, e-ink 2.9 inch
Voice and phone
Made and Left: say what you cooked and what was left each night
At closing the seller says 'made 60 bowls, 14 left'. The system keeps the record and after a week suggests the right batch size per day and the day the leftover shrinks, in a voice message.
Build with Whisper Thai, Claude, Sheets, TTS
Hardware and sensors
Auto Discount Sign: an e-ink sign that drops the price at 8 PM and counts portions
An e-ink sign on the stall shows the price and portions left. At a set hour it switches to a discount automatically and a counter button updates the number, so leftovers turn into sales without the seller doing anything.
Build with ESP32, e-ink 4.2 inch, button, RTC
Web portal
Stall Sim: rehearse your first month in a simulation with your menu and your rivals
The seller enters the menu, cost, rival count and starting cash. The simulation plays out the month and shows when the money runs out and what changes it, such as fewer dishes, a different spot or a smaller batch, before the real money is gone.
Build with React, simple simulation model, rival counts from Walk Count
What people reported
Couple's rice-noodle stall: about 25,000 baht negative in month one, 4-5 old noodle sellers nearby, menu cut to 3-4 dishes, leftovers daily, asks stay or move.
pantip.comSkewer seller of a year: customers faded from month 8 as five rivals opened in town; the food tasted the same as theirs; he could not tell why.
pantip.comPoster sees laundromats and pharmacies every 3-5 km and asks whether such shops are still profitable or the market is full.
pantip.com