How could you resist pampering yourself to a much needed retail therapy and pick up some real bargains?
As you often hear, they say ladies don't need a reason to shop but not men.
Just the other day, my cousin was planning to buy a pair of working pants as his old one had faded after numerous wash. Yes, he needed one.
We went to a departmental store that caters to average-income customers. The store was practically empty - only 3 customers - and you can see that the staff were standing around just waiting for time to pass.
There were two sales ladies at the men section putting a new polo tee on a mannequin. They were talking to themselves as if we're non-existent. So we just helped ourselves looking through the racks of pants.
Buying a pair of working pants is both easy and difficult. You just need to decide if you want regular cut or slim fit, the color, waist size and perhaps the length. The difficult part is in finding the size you want and telling the colors apart. Now this is dark blue. That is black and that is dark grey.
And of course if you're on a budget, you'll start with the cheapest range to find if there's anything suitable or you fancy and work your way up the price range. For those slightly particular, you may decide if you want shiny fabrics or not and the content. Is it polyester and viscose? Or is it wool and something else?
So he picked two pairs and went to try them.
The ladies had finished dressing the mannequin and now putting various pieces of clothes on the display racks for the best visual effect, talking loudly at the same time.
A male colleague came by and offered his suggestion. They were bickering at each other.
The man said, "I said the belt is nice just to patronize you."
One lady turned to another staff and exclaimed, "The belt is very nice. Hope the display on the mannequin helps you to sell more belt."
I was standing there watching them for a good 15 minutes and they didn't bothered.
When they've finished, a sales lady came to me and said, "Are you looking for anything?"
"Nothing," I replied.
While we were at another upmarket departmental store, a salesman came running to us when he saw us browsing at the section he's in charge of. We asked for the color and size without having to look through ourselves.
When he couldn't find the color for the right size, he asked if we could try on the size first to see if it fits. We insisted on the color and he went took it from the storeroom.
While my cousin was trying on the pants in the fitting room, I looked around to find a seat to rest my legs. There was one and it's inside the next fitting room. Walked in and planted myself on the chair. Looked around the tiny cubicle and noticed dirt on the floor and a broken mirror.