BURIRAM 19 April 2013 Pawn shops are seeing an increase in business as the Songkran festival dies down and people find themselves less endowed than they were just a couple days earlier.
In Buriram province, a large number of people have visited the government pawn shop in downtown Buriram city. Throughout the day, staff at the pawn shop tended to locals as well as tourists who were pawning gold, electrical appliances, silk and various other items. 90% of the pawned items were gold ornaments.
Most of the cash-strappedvisitors were pawning their possessions either to get money for household spending or to get cash to purchase bus and train tickets back to the locality where they work, after having used up their savings while visiting their families in Buriram.
More than 1,000 people pawned items at the pawnshop in the immediate aftermath of Songkran, contributing to at least 7 million baht of circulation per day. Normally, only 200-300 people pawn items at the shop each day. The pawn shop has reserved 130 million baht in cash and another 300 million baht of available funds to accommodate the customers. Pawn shop staff said the surge in business is expected to last an entire week. [
