Phuket cold-sandwich complaint prompts online racism debate

A foreign man’s accusation that a Phuket convenience-store employee ignored him after he received a cold sandwich has sparked an online debate over whether the incident involved racism or a service mistake.

The TikTok user, who posts as @davidkast93, shared a video on 10 November with the description “The racism in Thailand”. He said in the caption that it was his fourth day in the country.

In the video, the man said racism was the only thing he disliked about Thailand and showed a half-eaten sandwich that he claimed had not been heated properly. He accused a female employee of ignoring him because she disliked him.

The footage then showed him returning to the convenience store to complain. The employee, who was alone at the counter, reheated the sandwich. The man complained that she had not offered a replacement or discussed the problem with him.

Several Thai commenters suggested the employee might have struggled to understand English, while others speculated that she may have been tired because the incident reportedly occurred at about 5am. Some users said they had also received sandwiches that were cold or overheated at convenience stores, describing the incident as a possible service error rather than discrimination.

The man ended the video by saying he had enjoyed his time in Thailand and did not believe all Thai people were racist. Some foreign users who had visited or lived in Thailand also said they had not experienced racism there.