Bangkok chauffeurs serve Michelin-star meals while junk mail is delivered by limousine in New York City – how the ultra-rich are getting by in lockdown

May 10 , 2020

Restaurants in Bangkok are starting to reopen, but in the meantime for millionaires Michelin meals can be delivered by chauffeurs. Photo: AFP

White-gloved butlers can even set the table and lay out the food at your home – while limousines hurry precious packages and throwaway adverting spam to bored rich in the Hamptons

As wealthy people in the US hire limo drivers to shuttle mail to the Hamptons, rich people in Thailand are having gourmet takeaway meals chauffeured by butlers in black sedans.

AFP reported that concierge companies in the capital city of Bangkok are delivering meals from high-end and Michelin-starred restaurants to their celebrity and VIP clientele. Jakkapun Rattanapet, founder of the concierge company Silver Voyage Club, said his company restricted its business to serve those ordering takeaway, and launched the White Glove Delivery service as a rewards programme for those who have at least US$1 million in the bank.

The butlers, wearing white gloves, can even come in to set the table and formally present the takeaway to clients, to give them as close to a true dine-in experience as possible.

Rattanapet’s transport business took a nosedive as business travel came to a halt because of the coronavirus lockdown. He launched the reward programme and pivoted into high-end food delivery as another way to make money, though Thailand is now beginning to reopen, allowing some restaurants to resume eat-in services with social distancing measures in place at the time of writing.

Rattanapet told AFP that his new White Glove Delivery programme is also assisting with Covid-19 aid efforts, donating 1,000 meals a day to frontline hospital workers.

More than 22 million people in Thailand have registered for government assistance amid the pandemic. And though AFP reports that Thailand is one of the most unequal nations in the world, it did not make 24/7 Wall St.'s 2019 list of the top 15 economically unequal countries in the world – unlike the US, which ranked No 9. There are currently 27 billionaires in Thailand, according to Forbes, compared with America's 614 billionaires.