Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Mannerisms

i was @ bugis the other day, when i entered this shop that sold hello kitty leather bags and juicy couture velour bags.

i was lookin' at a diaper bag (the really big one that has baby couture or sth embroidered on the side pocket, and comes with the juicy changing pad, juicy burp pad, and bib with juicy angel in cursive). in my opinion it was the PERFECT bag for mummies or mothers to be. (we can always buy it and keep it for years down the road and carry it off as a piece of vintage!).

i always had this idea that i don't want to be the kinda mummy (if i ever become one one day! :)) who carries a pram, loads of barang barang in plastic bags, which makes her look really clumsy even if she's not. point is, i am clumsy without having to even look like i am. so, i've decided i just need a big bag for baby's necessities and my supportive, comfortable (because by then it'll be FATTY!) arm and off we go! SHOPPING! haha. which is also why i always felt we should have trolleys and travellators in every major shopping mall for a start. (i don't like to have to wait for what seems like a day for just a lift and then find out that i have to squeeze with a dozen other people -.-). but i guess small shops can't accomodate the size of the trolley. :P woops!

well anyway, back to the bag. at $79.90, well $75 actually, (because there was no need to haggle with her to get the price down, as she'll tell you she'll cut it down for you way before you even zip it open to take a decent look), i highly doubt its authentic, even though the material and all is pretty nice and worthy. but the woman, keeps saying that hers is authentically made in korea/japan and that the factory has a license to produce this products. oh puhlease, i think she meant that the factory has a license to run, because juicy stuff is only made in Bulgaria/Italy/the Glamourous USA, and other western countries perhaps as long as its stated on individual product descriptions on their website.

so there was absolutely no need for her to repeatedly brag about the so-called authenticity of her bags the whole time. disgusting. she was treating me like a nut thinking that i had absolutely zero knowledge about juicy stuff (not that i know a lot, because i really don't, but she basically thought i had never ever heard of the brand and even said that 3 months ago when she brought the juicy bags in, NOBODY knew what juicy was!), but in actual fact, had given herself and the true status of the authenticity of her products away without even knowing it (the part about country of manufacture). if the stuff's sooo good, why not open a boutique for specialised stuff at Paragon? ;)

one thing i knew for sure, was that customer service was never present in bugis street shops.

anyway, the worst part came when i was sooo curious about whether her bag came with all the baby stuff in it, which had doubted in the first place. considering the price, that is. $75's not cheap, but it definitely is a 75% discount off the retail price for the truly authentic ones. she agreed to let me open it when asked politely, but exclaimed really loudly "It costs 70 over dollars you know!".

wasn't that a direct hint to say that she thinks i can't afford it?

well now i learned that such people actually exist. I opened my eyes to see and believe that civilisation is not about establishing civilised civilians.

i was shocked. and dumbfounded by that statement. and so i remained reactionless. no rolling eyes, no nothing. there was no point in doing such meaningless things. but in my state of disbelief, i discovered a glue stain on one of the straps. :)

i'm not sure if its because many people came to her shop before to look at stuff and they just walked off without buying and therefore that made her pissed. but of course, she claims that her bags are selling perfectly well, and they get swiped off the shelves before one could even blink.

or maybe, she felt great about herself for being able to come up with a capital to start up a shop selling the velour bags at bugis, and felt that she's the richest woman in the world.

perhaps she was just having a bad day. but that was in no way an excuse.

i don't know what the reason is. but these are my guesses! :P!~

and if its about the dressing, no, i wasn't wearing shabby, granny clothes like what people would wear only at home or even ah lian clothes (NO WAY!!! NOT EVER!!!) but still, the daring, uncooth AUNTIE still said what she said, in Mandarin.

wait till she meets a humble yet rich girlie (in a super duper rare case but there is such an admirable person out there) who puts the whole hoo-haa about the glam factor to shame as she would show the world that looks are not equivalent to how much $ one has. (especially when there are people who want to and try to look glam so that people will think that they r glam & rich n so they therefore try to cook up this glam image to meet the common perception of people who think that looking glam comes with a big price tag. but they forgot that sometimes, money can't buy class, taste and style. for example, look at how Charlize Theron was slammed by Celebrity Stylists and etc. for that Christian Dior dress that she wore on the red carpet on the Oscar night).

i don't only have one encounter @ bugis to prove that the service sucks there. sorry, but i guess that's the simplest word to use.

many weeks ago, ailay entered this apparel shop @ bugis to try on a pair of black cropped pants with runching at the sides. we both thought it looked great on her.

then came along this sales-woman who was unPleasantly Plump, more Plumpy than ailay of course, who said to her "are u surprised that you can fit into an M?".

oh trust me, that was so freaking suggestive.

and IT went on.. "when i look at you, the first thing i noticed was that your hips/thigh area is big but surprisingly your waist is small". (i think she meant that the biggest part of ailay's body was her hips/thighs area and therefore relatively unproportionate to the rest of her body)

and. she POINTED at ailay's thighs too.

how insensitive can she get! it has reached a point where the possibility of humiliation strides in and insult could possibly get in the victim's way, and innocent honesty takes a trip to the backyard and stays there!

ailay may not have put it to heart, but the both of us felt that the sales-woman was so utterly rude. and of course, i'm glad we remained calm, unaffected by a nobody's comments and we used the experience as something to chat about for a moment or two. wasn't that the best way to go?

what are all these negative comments supposed to mean?

are the bugis sales-women looking to being mean, foulmouthing and offending people in a way that they think sounds like an honest viewpoint so hopefully their potential customers would believe what they said and feel insecure about themselves and therefore purchase their products to make themselves and their imperfections look better?

the above scenarios may look like personal attack cases, but imo, they're just good examples of the lack of customer service, which includes the level of product knowledge and the way in which customers should be treated with "care", and not belittlement, and over-flooded with bragging and arrogance.

i do understand that no human is perfect. it doesn't hurt to be nicer to others (i don't mean that sales peeps should tell white lies, but basic courtesy's all i'm asking for - yes, no extras) rather than to use or create an imperfection in oneself to sell one's stuff at the expense of another and his/her imperfections.
bee at 8:47 AM