Who is a Seasoned Shopper then?

A friend gave me some food for thought a couple of days ago. To be exact, a tin of coasters with the words, "cash is for amateurs" on its cover.

Not being very bright, I laughed at it and returned the tin to her thinking that she'd picked it up to show me because it was amusing.

"For you", she said,"open it". So I did.

A set of six coasters expressing sentiments that every seasoned shopper (like my pal) would have applied to herself or her like-minded friends at one time or another.

The other five:

"she would show THEM consumer confidence"
"frugal is such an UGLY word"
"she made yet ANOTHER wise shopping decision"
"it had simply been a 'must-have' "
"if only she had bought it when she saw it"

This made me think (yeah, it's hard, I know).

I wonder if seasoned shoppers are born or trained? Is shopping a matter of nature or nurture?

How did I become a Daiso freak? An online shopping site browser? A Mustafa miner? A kitchen gadget collector? A stationery shop addict? A D-I-Y shop digger? A bargain bin diver?

And yet I pale in comparison to many of my friends, here and abroad, who have made shopping a fine art. They can find things to buy where no one else can find anything at all.

Would a seasoned shopper try to kill time by going down to Orchard Road just after 9:00am? No, because that's when only the purveyors of coffee, tea and breakfast would be open.

So my hopes of getting pomeloes from Isetan were dashed that morning and I had to take a slow walk past a still shuttered Tangs, past Orchard MRT station, through Wisma Atria to Takashimaya. All closed up like so many clams.

Since I wanted to continue underground while it was getting hotter outside, I turned around and came home via ION, Wheelock Place and Shaw Centre, thinking "what's a tourist going to do"?

Not much it seems unless he or she takes a stroll in the Botanic Gardens or dallies in an eatery.

Hardly the stuff to satisfy the urge to do a bit of retail therapy. I wished there was a Mustafa nearby, but there was only Jason's supermarket.

Even that hive of nocturnal activity, Orchard Road's equivalent of the Night Safari - Orchard Towers - was somnolent. Its denizens of the night having gone home to catch up with their sleep.

That's when it struck me that something is missing - we need 24 hour shopping up and down Orchard Road.