Dangerous times

January is one of the more dangerous months here in HK. As the season is about to transition from Winter to Spring, shops are more than eager to get last season's stocks off the shelf. And in this consumer haven of a country, the best way to do that is to put up the "SALE" sign.

Now everywhere I look, there's a sale sign. Not only that, there's usually a prefix (like "Final Sale") or a suffix (Sale 70%) which adds to the urgency. So, even if I have no plans of buying anything, these signs are like powerful vortexes that draw me in to see if anything is worth buying. And most often, there are A LOT of things that are covet worthy.

Zara has had 3 price slashes the past two weeks. Heck, they had a blouse with grosgrain details that went from $499 to $79! Plus they're in Mom's size! Who in his or her right mind would let that pass? The same goes with H&M's children's department where a $200 pair of shoes is now sold at $45. Ack!

Not to be outdone, Mango is also on slasher mode. (Well, they were already on-sale in Manila when I left so I'm not surprised.) But what they have here that's special is the Penelope and Monica Cruz collection, also at 70% off. The last time I checked out Mango at Robinson's Place, they didn't have the Cruz collection on sale yet.



I've been back here for just two weeks and I must say that my luggage is already in danger of being filled with all these sale items. Maybe I should steer clear of malls until this entire fracas is over.

Or maybe not.