Return of the Fuller Brush Obsession

I just couldn’t resist getting a Fuller Brush.

For people who have read the Bangkok Blog for a long time, they will know that I had an obsession at one time with the brushes cleaners use to tidy floors, streets and almost everything else in this part of the world. These brushes have a bamboo handle, of various lengths, depending on the use, and bristles made of twigs or straw. You see these brushes everywhere in Bangkok.

I started calling these brushes and brooms Fuller Brushes, because they are sold, not only in shops, but mostly by guys on bikes who pedal around town hawking the various types of brooms and brushes. They are just like the Fuller Brush salesman who used to go door to door selling their products. Here’s an interesting piece on that company’s sales guys.

I wrote many posts on the Bangkok Fuller Brushes, several of which are listed at the end of this entry for those of you who are interested. Some of the entries even have movies included.

The reason I am bringing the Fuller Brush issue up again is that just the other day I passed a shop on Rama IV that had these brushes displayed in a container on the sidewalk and as I was looking at them, the shop keeper came out and just handed me one saying  “This  one for you.”  I was intending to say no thank you, but he was pretty insistent. Actually, he was a pretty awesome sales guy, so even though I didn’t want or need a Fuller Brush, I handed over 100 baht ($3.50) and took it home. I discovered later, by looking at a tiny tag hidden in the bristles, that the actual cost was just 50 baht, half of what I paid. Those Thai sales people are pretty sharp. Or maybe us farangs (foreigners) are incredibly dull.  I clearly was charged the farang price instead of the local cost.  I had forgotten to haggle.

Anyway, I thought that it was quite beautiful, so along with a couple of Fuller Brush photos, I hung it on one of the walls in my apartment so that my obsession with Thai Fuller Brushes can continue unabated.

That pretty well cleans up this entry for now.

Here are some previous Fuller Brush Bangkok Blog entries that might interest you.

1) May 2011  (This entry has a lovely picture of a smiling cleaner with her Fuller Brush)
2) August 2009
3) February 24, 2007
4) February 21, 2007
5) February 18, 2007
6) February 16, 2007