Thursday May 11 2006 - My First Hong Kong Shopping Expedition

Well I finally did it. Instead of walking down the street, or through one of the malls and gazing sideways at the hundreds and hundreds and THOUSANDS of stores, I actually shopped! I had a plan and I followed it. I learned a lot, and realized that I have SO much more to learn…the sort of sentence that probably puts a chill down my poor husband’s back!

My first goal was to see what Lane Crawford has to offer. This is not the American Lane Crawford. This is a large British department store. I decided I wanted to go to their “flagship” store, so I started at the IFC, one of the huge, fancy malls in Hong Kong. It turns out Lane Crawford is basically Saks, and there were NO sales today! I looked but nothing jumped out at me, especially at the prices. So next I meandered through the IFC. It’s a huge mall, and its ALL designers. It’s still overwhelming to me. I went into a few stores, but it really wasn’t what I was looking for, at least not today. To shop designers, first of all for me things have GOT to be on sale, and secondly it’s more fun with another person, so you can be silly and try things on when you have no intention of actually buying things.

So…my next goal was to try to walk from the IFC all the way back to Queens Road in Central without ever going outside. I thought it should be possible, and I THOUGHT all the buildings in between these two places had stores in them, but I really wasn’t positive. I knew that I wanted to check out the Prince’s Building, which is next to the main branch of our bank, because at least from the outside it looked like it had some really interesting stores. I was easily able to walk from the IFC to the Princes Building, about 3 blocks, without going outside. The insides of all the buildings in-between really ARE filled with stores – its amazing! I stumbled upon a Brooks Brothers while walking and went inside, and actually decided to try some things on. The prices were reasonable (no bargains, just not mind-blowing). I learned two things very quickly. If you are in an American store in HK, the sizes are US sizes! If you’re in a French store, they’re French sizes. If you’re in a UK store, you got it, UK sizes! You think things are confusing in the USA, well! In HK forget it; I have NO idea what size I wear here. Secondly, there is usually just one of a particular outfit on display. You select something, a salesperson swoops down and you tell them what size you “think” you want. They get it out of the back and you try it on. If you need a different size, they go find it. It was okay…just something else to get used to.

I finally made it to the Princes Building. Cool building! Actually the neatest thing about it was the grocery store I found in it! Another high class, expat store, and I think it’s the nicest one I’ve seen yet. They actually had green chilies, which Lee has been hunting for and has been unable to find. The store was called Oliver’s. I was so excited when I saw the green chilies that I bought 4 cans of them and immediately text-messaged Lee in China to let him know!

Next, I wanted to check out Marks and Spencer, another big department store here. Well, that turned out to be a bust. The SMALLEST size was a US 8 – it was all large sizes. I thought this was really unfair, since the prices there were really good too! Oh well, live and learn. I was getting tired by then, but I wasn’t ready to quit. I wandered back into the Landmark Building, which was basically the building in-between Princes and Marks and Spencer. I had walked through one level of it already, but it was mostly designer boutiques and too fancy for my blood. So, I tried some other levels. I found a store that sold DVD’s and guess what I bought (this is for my Trinity mom friends) – the first season of 24! I need something else to watch when Lee is in China, since we are watching the Sopranos together, and I’m almost finished with the first season of GA.

Then I tried the lowest level of the Landmark Building. There were ALL kinds of stores down there that I had actually heard of before – Polo, Tommy Hilfiger, BCBG, and others. There was even an Aveda, so I don’t have to go to Kowloon for my Aveda fix after all! I went into a couple of stores and saw things that I thought Sarah would like. I ended up trying on a couple of skirts in BCBG and buying one.

So, I am content, and feeling braver. I’m going to go do the same thing at Pacific Place, and then I’ll try Times Square too. I want to check out the Japanese department store Seibu in Pacific Place.  I want to go into the boutiques in Soho, AND I want to bravely walk down the “lanes” and maybe buy some cheap knockoff, and bargain. I’m ready!!!

But I WISH I could describe this to you all better. I basically traversed a 5 block area without ever going outside. I went through 1 huge mall, and 4 other building that from the outside look like just big office buildings with some shops at street level that turned out to be just FILLED with stores of every description! The things is, HK is the WORLD, so there are lots of European, Asian and Japanese stores that I’ve never heard of, on top of some, but not all of the usual US brands. They are catering to the market here, which mean young, stylish, trendy Asians. So there is stuff that someone like me would like, but I have to look for it. It sure is interesting though!