Members Lucky Posted January 22 Members Posted January 22 Once in NY's Chinatown I stopped at a street market selling t-shirts and bought several. The elderly lady took them over to her wrapping station while I looked at other items. She then presented me the shopping bag, tied tightly at the top. When I got back to the hotel, I realized that she had substituted inferior and unwanted shirts in the bag, probably the ones she couldn't sell. So now I get back from Bangkok and Taipei with my bags of goodies and usually wonder why I thought that they were worth buying. Indeed, 4 of the shirts I never bought. The old substitution game continues. Wise up, Lucky! vinapu, floridarob, reader and 1 other 3 1 Quote
fedssocr Posted January 22 Posted January 22 maybe you're just shopping in the wrong places. My problem is that I discovered EveandBoy and now I can't help myself. The nice thing is that so much of this stuff is pretty cheap. But I might need an extra bag for all of my Asian skincare Lucky 1 Quote
reader Posted January 22 Posted January 22 Not just in Thailand, that's for sure. I wanted to buy a really nice silk scarf for my late sister for Christmas many years back. Went to a high-end store and selected one I saw displayed in the window. Clerk asked me if she could wrap it up for me and I said "sure." When I presented it to my sister after Christmas dinner it turned out to be a different scarf altogether. Lucky 1 Quote
vinapu Posted January 23 Posted January 23 17 hours ago, reader said: ...Clerk asked me if she could wrap it up for me and I said "sure." When I presented it to my sister after Christmas dinner it turned out to be a different scarf altogether. Sometimes those stories have happy ending as similar situation happened to my sister buying sweater for me. Turned out that thay packed wrong item but nevertheless she liked that "substitute" and so did I and still do as 15 or so years later i,m stillwearing it . Quote
vinapu Posted January 23 Posted January 23 18 hours ago, Lucky said: So now I get back from Bangkok and Taipei with my bags of goodies and usually wonder why I thought that they were worth buying. Indeed, 4 of the shirts I never bought. The old substitution game continues. Wise up, Lucky! Do what I do and travel light. That is surest way to limit expenses only to items that need urgent replacement as that cheap but beautifull iron cast statue or whatever suddenly becomes expensive when you realize that carrying it will requre 100 $ checked luggage surcharge. reader 1 Quote
macaroni21 Posted January 23 Posted January 23 The incident I experienced wasn't intentional but nonetheless a loss. I was in Ben Thanh market in Saigon last year and liked a shirt. At the same time, another tourist was also buying. Through the corner of my eye, I noticed his choice of colours. He liked them bold. We both made up our minds around the same time and the shop owner collected payment from me to pass as change to the other guy. She packed our shirts into brown paper bags and thanked both of us as we left. "Come again soon," she said. When I got back to my hotel room, I stuffed the paper bag into my suitcase and forgot about it. It was a few days later, when I got home that I looked into the paper bag. I had the two garish shirts the other guy bought. Not only that, they were too big for me. He must have received the shirt I bought. Too small for him, I think. At least I paid for only one shirt, while he had paid for two. Ouch. Quote
thaiophilus Posted January 23 Posted January 23 8 hours ago, vinapu said: Do what I do and travel light. That is surest way to limit expenses only to items that need urgent replacement as that cheap but beautifull iron cast statue or whatever suddenly becomes expensive when you realize that carrying it will requre 100 $ checked luggage surcharge. but if you're in Bangkok and you really really really want a cast iron statue, here's the place: (Google Street View) and there are two more floors of the stuff inside... 😵 vinapu 1 Quote
