When you see a sign that has over 10 different well known clothing brands named (From Y3 to Addidas…) and says “Warehouse, up to 90% SALE!!”, wouldn’t you run over right away to check out the new hype for the afternoon? Even if we are going to be late back to the office. Well, that’s exactly what my colleagues and I did after lunch today.
We treked up 15 floors, walked through a little alley way and arrived in a huge room with piles of clothes, shoes, bags and different accessories. I wish I had my camera at the time so the image could become clearer to you because no, they weren’t in neat folded piles… everything was a mess and the price tags of everything was tangled up. Along with the piles of items on sale, there were probably 200+ people running around scrambling through items, sort of like rats scrambling for trash in rubbish dumps. A quarter of those people lining up for the cashier.
There were also plastic bags big enough for me to hide in within 2 meters of you anywhere you went, in case you run out of space in your first bag and needed another one! “We are very busy people, places to go, things to do and only have so much time to shop! so you better not make us walk to the front of the shop to get a bag.”
Mind you, this is not the first time I’ve been to a sale like this in HK but this time going, it was a different rush of feelings. As I pretended to scramble through clothes, I observed everyone left and right of me and even caught a bit of their conversations. It was incredible, though the whole enviornment was a bit insane and overwelming to me. I even heard someone say “let’s call back to the office and tell our boss that our lunch meeting for work went overtime and we will be an hour late!”
Nobody was just buying one or two items, everyone in line for the cashier had 2 or more FULL black plastic bags they were dragging along behind them. If you didn’t know better, you would’ve thought everything was free! To be honest, it actually gives me a headache and takes way too much effort to try and scramble through until I find something I would find worth it…
Hong Kong’s shopping mentality never ceases to amaze me. With that being said, I’m sure a sale like this anywhere else in the world would attract just as many people.
If you are reading this and thinking “How come I didn’t know about this sale? Where is it?! I have to go!!!” It’s in the Bazaar on the 13th floor of Times Square. Now go and shop away.
Joanne Lam 