The Customer

The Customer saunters into the shop, irked by the musty air and the dark surroundings which caused him to strain his myopic eyes. Market research had proved that a set of Specimen A - Battery , Croc clips and wire cost S$7.50 the day before. The shrill welcome bell alerted the portly lady boss of a possible money-making opportunity, as she subsequently terminated her phone conversation. Her beady eyes focused on her victim as she flashed a amiable smile and asked "Ni Yao She Mo Ah, Xiao di?". The Customer did not fall for basic marketing techniques and explained his purpose with a disinterested voice. She took out the 8 sets i wanted, and quoted her price.. slashing each set by a mere 10 cents. The doe-like pleading eyes suddenly appeared on the Customer's face, and an innocent smile flashed acrossed his face as he proceeded to bring down the price.. "auntie i buy so much, can give discount? $7 lar".. She pondered a while then took out her calculator.. then said she wouldnt be making much.. The customer then thot of giving his Sly smile which would undoubtedly melt any gal's heart but decided agst it... again he reiterated his proposal... "$7 la, buying so much alr".. She pondered again then decided that a purchase of 10 boxes would entail a $7 a set.. During payment of the $70, the customer tried an old trick in the book by faking that he needed to draw more money by asking where the nearest POSB atm was, knowing fully well tat there wasnt any ard.. but those hopes were quashed by a "oh we accept NETS here".. Nevertheless, the customer still sauntered out the shop, gleaming with satisfaction.

This mirrors Vietnam where i went on bargain hunting trips... the poor gal who tried to sell me stamps at US$5 had to sell me at US$1 after walking with me for about 3 km along the streets.. another incident was the small viet gal who bugged me for almost 3 km to buy flowers again.. and she kept toying wif me.. agreeing on a discounted price but at the point where she was supposed to give the flowers she changed bak to original price.. in the end she got sick of her little tirade n left us alone... The same haggling can be seen at the Ben Thah Market.. where u gotta start at a price less than half of wats quoted then walk off almost str away, feigning an appalled face.. prices will plummet like hell n soon u will get ur way... hopefully i can do the same in Finland if i got $$ to shop there..

Talking abt finland we had lunch with a SEP senior.. learnt tat finland is not tat boring after all, pple actually do understand english juz tat lessons arent taught in finnish..and its not tat COLD n DARK...there's skiing, got trips to russia!! St Petersburg!! Wow! Santa Claus village! n budget trips to UK!! and parties every wk... can see the diff between the sep intentions within our grp.. me n wl were asking more abt the leisure aspects while qiyuan n yy asking abt module mapping.. haha for me SEP realli is like relaxing trip.. hiazz i sure hope it will be super fun... n i dun fail anything...