I really think shopping should be considered a sin. I have seen some of the expressions of the ladies I have been out with and I would actually akin it to a ecstasy, a passionate feeling that they experience every time they enter a retail shop, spot a bargain, spy some shoes which look the same to any other guy or when they hear the familiar sound of a receipt being printed and the credit card company adding another line to their monthly bill. This is a feeling most of the guys in the world cannot understand and will never understand. When we have to pay, we feel pain, nausea and sometimes a need to find a dark hole to hide in as the bags seem to pile up and the pain in your arm gets more acute. This is why Singapore should be described as the secret heaven of all ladies who delight in retail. The delights of shopping in Singapore and her wealth of shopping centers and shopping directories that would make mapmakers of the globe shudder in fright are both legendary and on the tips of the lips of every traveler who comes to Singapore to experience this mad craze – crowned off by the great Singapore sale and other mini bargain seasons that seem to crop up just as pay day rolls by.
If Singapore could be described as a maze then it is somewhere that the ladies and anyone who is passionate about shopping would love to get lost in. On last count there are more than 200 major shopping malls and centers all over the island, from massive redoubts and golden palaces of retail opportunities to the more humble buildings that are scattered along the many suburbs and quaint little towns all over Singapore. I mean, Mustaffa Shopping centre is an example why I think shopping should be declared as sin as many ladies after a night out of disco and cocktails top off the night with a champagne and a trip to the largest 24-hour shopping centre in Singapore. While this is not a typical list a guy would draw up as a good time on a Friday night, this is the extent of the shopping culture in Singapore. Orchard Road has more than 2, 000 local and international brands in buildings of old and new, some of which reach to the skies. A bus full of ladies in a bus riding past orchard will always make an excuse to stop by and experience the delights it has to offer. It is an addiction to retail, a drug induced stupor, lightheadedness and a buoyant mood every time they start shopping around.
What’s more is that they get treated like royalty in Singapore. Shopping centers are designed to make their retail experience as fluid and as velvety as possible. Well trained concierge staff, retail staff and cashiers who seem to have a smile transfixed on their face and a warm greeting always on the tip of their tongue are predominant in many of these department stores. Shopping is a delight in Singapore – simply because this country has been designed to give such pleasures.
