With an economy of approximately GBP 200,000 million, measured in terms of Gross Doestic Product (GDP), the Kingdom of Thailand is relatively small compared to leading developed economies, such as the United Kingdom at GBP 1.4 trillion, Japan at GBP 3.4 trillion and the United States of America at GBP 9.0 trillion. Nevertheless, Thailand is consideredas one of the high potential emerging markets and has been very attractive for global investors, including property developers, food and procery retailers and a wide range of other purveyors of good and services. Thailand has a population of nearly 70 million, roughly half of which is under 35. Many global retailers have shown their interest by joint venturing or indepently investing in Thailand, such as tesco (the United Kingdom), Carrefour (France), Casino Group (France), 7-Eleven (Japan) and IKEA (Sweden). In addition, as stated on the Tescowrbsite, Thailand is currently its second largest international matket. Many emerging markets, including Thailand, are seeing rapid transformations in the retailing sector, changes happening within 10 to 20 years whereas it took 50 to 80 years in the United States and many counties in Europe (Reardon and Hopkins 2006). The major development in Thailand occurred in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with the introduction of several modern retailing formats into the market, including convenience stores and hypermarkets, while supermarkets had opened approximately two decades earlier. This expansion was partially bucause of the financial crisis and devaluation of the Thai baht, whuch occurred in 1997.