What actually happens at the counter in Pattaya

What do I actually need to carry with me?

Practical caution — not a legal conclusion

Two things, both originals: identification and the prescription. For a visitor the identification is the passport; a resident shows a Thai identity card. Photographs of either on a phone are not the document, and this is the single most common reason a visit ends at the counter instead of at the till.

Everything else is optional. There is no membership, no registration form to fill in beforehand and no third document that people sometimes arrive clutching.

Do I need a Thai SIM card or a local phone number?

Practical caution — not a legal conclusion

Not for the purchase itself. A counter here works from age, identity and the prescription; a phone number is not among the things it looks at, and nobody at ours has ever been turned away for arriving without one.

A working connection is still worth having for a different reason: it is how you ask a question before crossing the city rather than after. Hotel wi-fi and a messaging app are enough for that.

Can I reserve or pay for something before I arrive?

Official source

No. The government notice says sale through vending machines, through electronic channels or computer networks, and advertising through all channels are prohibited. A reservation with money attached is a sale through an electronic channel, whatever the button is called.

This is also the answer to the question people ask second: why this site has no basket, no stock page and no figures anywhere on it. The absence is the rule being followed, not an oversight.

How is payment handled in the shop?

Not confirmed — we have no verified source

In person, at the counter, when the documents have been read — that part follows from the prohibition on selling through electronic channels and is not a preference.

Which means of payment a counter takes is something this site does not state, because it is not confirmed here and it is exactly the kind of detail that changes without anyone updating a web page. Ask before you travel across town; a straight answer costs one message.

My passport is in the hotel safe. Is a photo of it enough?

Practical caution — not a legal conclusion

No, and it is worth knowing that before you set out rather than at the door. A photograph proves nothing about who is holding the phone, and a counter that accepts one is not applying a check at all.

The same goes for the prescription. Carry both, keep them together, and treat the walk back to the hotel as part of the cost of arriving without them.

I came yesterday. Will I be asked for everything again?

Practical caution — not a legal conclusion

Yes. The check is per purchase, not per person, and being remembered by a member of staff is not a substitute for it. It is quick, but it happens.

Read that as a good sign rather than as suspicion: a counter that stops checking regulars is a counter that has decided the rules apply on some days and not others, and the licence on its wall is what it is gambling with.

Can I buy for a friend who stayed at the hotel?

Practical caution — not a legal conclusion

No. The document names a person, the check is made on the person standing there, and a purchase for somebody who is not present is not something a counter here will complete.

The part visitors underestimate is what happens afterwards. Handing what you bought to somebody else — particularly to anybody under twenty — makes you the person who supplied it, and that is a different conversation entirely from the one about buying.

Will I have to explain my medical situation at the counter?

Practical caution — not a legal conclusion

That conversation belongs to the consultation, not to the shop. A counter reads what the practitioner wrote and works from that; it is not the place where the reasoning is examined again.

What you will be asked about is ordinary retail ground — what you are looking for, what is on the shelf that day, what is worth comparing against what. If a question feels wrong, you are allowed to leave without answering it.

Can I check anything by message before I come?

Practical caution — not a legal conclusion

Yes, and it is the sensible order of operations. Describe what you are holding and you will get a straight answer about whether it is the right kind of document; ask how to find the door and you will get directions.

What a message will not contain is a figure. We do not name numbers in electronic channels at all, so the counter is where that part of the conversation happens.

Does the shop write down who I am?

Practical caution — not a legal conclusion

A licensed counter keeps its own record of what it sold and against which document — that is part of operating under a licence rather than something aimed at you, and it is the reason the paperwork is read carefully rather than waved through.

We do not publish what any given shop keeps or for how long, because we have not read a source that sets it out, and inventing one would be worse than saying so. If it matters to you, ask at the door before the purchase rather than after it.

Where these answers come from

Thai Government notice (17 July 2025)