Buying Low

You know, sometime during the years that I've been living on this planet, I have heard of people who earn big moolah by flying to the USA, stock up on branded handbags and stuff, and then fly back home to sell them.

Being a person who absolutely loathes shopping, I had considered this money-making scheme for only 0.000034115 seconds before discarding it with a big "BLEAH!".

I'm now reconsidering it, though. Because I have discovered that these branded items are not bought from your atas 5th Avenus boutiques. They are brought from Premium Outlet Malls. Yes... that is the utopia for branded stuff - Premium Outlet Malls.

Adidas provides some comfort

These are basically a bunch of premium-brand shops setting up shop together in a suburban area. Then they throw in a huge parking lot, because people who don't have a car don't deserve to buy the branded stuff. Constantly sell your stock for at least 20% off at all times and you got a robust business going on!

I always wondered why it's called an "Exchange" when they don't trade new threads for your old ones.

The family raided 4 Premium Shopping Malls during their stay here. The one in Clinton was first to be conquered. Then Wrentham, Lake George fell next. And Woodbury was last to fall under the might of the "Mother-Shopper".

Wrentham really yielded the best deals for us though. We were fortunate enough to visit during Memorial Day, where everything was going at 50% off. So you had items going at around 20-60% off, then going for another 50% off! Not sure of the exact numbers, but I think the wife was saying that they got 4 Kate Spade bags for USD 120. She told me in a hushed, highly reverent tone, so I reckon that's something to go "wow" about.

There's always a queue outside Coach. Why don't they just call for a cab?

Come the last day of their stay, the in-laws spent the evening packing all their goodies. It was a good thing that I decided that the new trolley Ali-Baba bag from the Singapore Armed Forces was not a good bag to use, especially if I'm expected to hike up mountains in Peru. So I bought a new bag (not a Premium Outlet purchase!) and they got to pack all their goodies into good ol' Ali-Baba.

In-laws deciding what goes where, and which items to claim VAT for

Aha! How then, do the parents get all this shopping back home? Do they have to ship anything? Or pay for excess luggage?

Apparently not. The airline they were flying on allows 2 bags x 23kg as check in luggage! That's a whole lot of stuff you can lug home! I reckon if you do this enough, you'd get to the upper tiers of any frequent flyer program, and then your maximum allowable weight will increase too.

It's really similar to the Sri Lankan/Maldivian/Indian traders that come to Singapore, buy stuff, then being them home, I guess. Just that you deal with bags and clothes instead of TVs and gold.

Check out the happy Mum-in-law.

It's really not for me, though. I loathe shopping.