Dokya (, ) is a Thai

bookseller Bookselling is the commercial trading of books, which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process. People who engage in bookselling are called booksellers, bookdealers, book people, bookmen, or bookwomen. History The foundi ...

based in

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estim ...

. It was one of the largest bookstore chains in Thailand in the 1990s, but has sharply declined since. Dokya was established as Samakkhisan (Dokya) Co., Ltd. in 1981, and originally operated a single bookshop at Tha Phrachan, near

Thammasat University Thammasat University (TU; ; , ) is a public university, public research university in Thailand with campuses in the Tha Phra Chan area of Bangkok, Rangsit, Pattaya and Lampang Province. , Thammasat University has over 39,000 students enrolled in ...

. It was very successful, and established secondary branches, one of the first booksellers in the country to do so. Dokya, which also operated as a publisher, rapidly grew into one of the largest bookstore chains in the country in the 1990s, and went public in 1995. It expanded into book imports, and also considered branching into film. In addition to its own branches, it established a franchise system, with over 60 franchisees. However, the business sharply declined afterwards, partly due to management issues that resulted in illiquidity causing Dokya to miss payments to publishers, damaging its credit.
Online manuscript
Samakkhisan (Dokya) PCL was declared bankrupt in 2006 and liquidated, though the business continued to operate under other entities. Most of Dokya's stores subsequently closed down, especially following political unrest in 2010 and major flooding in 2011, which cost it over 60 million baht (US$2M) in damages from which it was unable to recover. Its Victory Monument store was destroyed by fire in riots during the 2010 Thai military crackdown, and its popular

Siam Square Siam Square (, ) is a shopping and entertainment area in the Siam area of Bangkok, Thailand. The square is located at the corner of Phayathai Road and Rama I Road and is owned by Chulalongkorn University, managed by its Property Management Of ...

store closed down in 2017, leaving the original Tha Phrachan store as its last self-operated branch (excluding franchisees) as of 2019. Dokya also operated overseas branches in the United States at Thai Town and

Chinatown Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, which closed down in 2021.

References

{{Bookstore Chains Bookshops of Thailand