GSS Special IV - Nasty Motifs, Crafty Motives

Have you ever stepped into a shop and wonder why certain interior design is the way it is? The brightness of lights, the lack of mirrors inside the fitting rooms or the thin curtain "doors"... All these must be the evil intentions of shop owners to get us to buy their products. Especially so during the GSS when some goods are in less-than-desirable conditions. Let's reveal their motives:

Dimmed Lights
Some shops are not very brightly lit because we know everyone looks better in the dark. Shop owners are sticking to the mantra of "never making your customers look bad". You know how you sometimes wake up feeling that you would have a good day shopping and step into a boutique where the lights show your warts and all? Not a very conducive buying atmosphere right? So, some shops are cleverly designed to show off your assets: the angles of the spotlights to pick up the bearest hint of cleavage, the reduced glare from the lights to obscure your zits or pores. If you feel good about yourself, you are most likely to think you look nice in everything. And so? You buy, buy, buy and buy somemore.

Steps/Stairs/Uneven-flooring
I think these are in the way to make you fall so you will concuss and think you have the body of Gisele Bundchen or something.

Banana for you?

You will then hallucinate and be tricked into believing whatever the sales assistants tell you. After the spinning in your head stops, you will finally realize only the real Gisele can look good in a banana-colored string bikini.

Liar Mirrors
We should all not be strangers to these. That's why I love to see my reflection outside the Rolex shop (located in between Paragon and Lucky Plaza) because it makes me (look) slimmer! Yikes! Anyway, this kind of mirrors should be banned in boutiques because they are liars and make you buy stuff that make you look like a hippo. Very easy to spot, just see if the bottom of the mirror is flat against the wall or not. If it is not, then it'a a liar mirror.

Missing Mirrors
The most irritating is when you are wearing your old frayed bra and undies while trying on clothes and realize that there are no mirrors in your cubicle! How the hell are you supposed to know whether something looks good on you if you have no reflection to look at? Once you step out of the cubicle to check out the mirrors outisde, a sales assistant will bombard you with insincere compliments. Suddenly, you are not aware of being in the open with your well-worn lingerie on the show and feel like a million bucks in the 2-sizes-too-small dress (which you will invariably buy).

Thin Curtain Doors
Technically speaking, they are not even doors. Where have all the doors gone? These days, you will be hard-pressed to find a shop with real doors. Most have substituted the good, old wooden doors with curtains. Maybe some shop owners are voyeurs because they made their curtains a few inches too small and leave a gaping hole for others to peek in, no matter how hard to try to close it. But the real issue is those thin curtains that shows your silhouette even when fully closed. What is the real motive? I suspect they want to make us aware of being on the show and hurry our fittings so we will exit fast and buy even faster.

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Yes! Shop owners are indeed very crafty! We have disclosed some of the tricks up their sleeves. But they still have a weapon: their sales assistants. In the final installment of this GSS special, we will explore techniques of sales assistants! Muack muack, darlings! Until tomorrow!

GSS Special I - Preparations

GSS Special II - Aliens by the Billions

GSS Special III - Male & Shop = Pale & Whop

GSS Special IV - Nasty Motifs, Crafty Motives