Shopping at The Gardens

My sister dragged her whole family out shopping at The Gardens today. Seeing that I have never actually shopped around there before, I decided to tag along. I have been told that it is filled with stuff that nobody can actually afford to buy and seeing the crowd that ‘throngs’ the place, I would have to agree with that perception.

Instead of the regular fair that you find in almost every other Malaysian shopping mall, The Garden is generally filled with shops that one would find on any regular British high street. You will find Marks & Spencers, Borders and many other regular brands. So, I can understand why there is the perception that The Gardens is filled with high priced stuff.

However, I use the word ‘perception’ as I have to say that the things are not necessarily more expensive. In fact, it could potentially even be cheaper than buying stuff from your regular road side store. Point of fact is that I have been looking for a new branded mobile phone and Bluetooth headset and the cheapest deal that I have found is in a shop at The Gardens (RM 486 opening price).

In addition, I have also started shopping for a prime lens for my Pentax DSLR and the best price that I have found so far, is again in a photo shop at The Gardens (40mm F2.8 @ RM 1050). Seeing that the place is virtually void of other people, customer service is also fairly good. The sales people only have me to serve, wherever I go. So, that is a plus too.

Finally, I understand why my sister prefers to shop at The Gardens. The price of things is not necessarily much higher than found elsewhere. But with few people around, there is no need to muscle our way through crowds to get what we want. On top of that, the people have an ‘image’ to maintain and will treat their customers a little better.

Now, I’m curious about the other slew of ‘upper-class’ shopping malls in and around KL such as Pavilion, Bangsar Village and others. I think that I’ll go take a look around to see if they sell the stuff the I want. I did not spend too much today, just on a car MP3-FM adapter and some more original DVDs and CDs.

Oh, and there are plenty of nice places to eat at The Gardens too. I even found a nice little gelato stall that sells tasty gelato. I got myself a medium cup for RM12.50 (£2) and it was well worth the money. It was the first time I witnessed someone selling ice cream by the weight (she actually used a mini weighing machine as she scooped the gelato!).

PS: And the reason that I was brought along for the shopping trip: to perform the faithful duty that I’ve performed since I was a kid, which is to carry all the bags of stuff that my sister buys!