Last minute Christmas shopping frenzy combined with determination to buy a nice handbag to my fiancee made me wander the already crowded Myongdong streets on Sunday night. To say that the street is busy is a huge understatement. I actually relived the crowded Mumbai local train experiences on Sunday. So much so that the always cheerful shop keepers stopped saying “yo-bo-se-yo” and “kam-sa-ham-nida” to the shoppers.
There are these small carts selling items ranging from imitation handbags, jewelry, clothes to toys, eateries and Christmas cakes. Pretty much everything a person wants to pick-up in the last minute.
After looking for sometime, we thought may be more varieties can be found in a shop, so we went inside one of those malls in search of leather goods shop. After escalating for what seemed like a zillion steps, we landed at a place displaying handbags neatly stacked.
The shop keeper asked us whether we are looking for ladies or men’s handbags in broken English. We told him that its for ladies. He invited us to sit inside. My initial reaction was surprise. The shop looked more like a glorified cart than actual shop. Doubting his invitation we entered the place. Inside there is a miniature sofa and micro-mini chair, the kind where you can only rest a part of one of your butts. So there we are sitting and wondering whether we are in for the “Lo, there is a foreigner, lets swindle him by a few $s” trap.
Soon after the shop owner flashed this Louis Vuitton handbag catalogue and asked us to choose a model. Boy! these branded handbags are expensive. $200 leather bag for holding some loose change, cards, chocolates and a $150 mobile? Half jokingly we pointed at one of the models and asked him to bring it. He looked at us and said, “Best? Best?” meaning whether we want the original make. We nodded our head, not knowing what it meant.
He got a bag from somewhere else and started showing it to us. He tried to convince us that the bag is an original LV bag. We asked him what the price could be. He said “120,000 won”. We instantly wore a disapproving look on our faces. He said, “want imitation model?” We nodded yes.
This time around he got another bag which looked bang similar to the original one. When I say similar I mean both bags actually looked and felt same. This one was 20000 won. He is ready to sell it for even 15000. The same would be available for 10000 on the street carts. And even if there is a 1000 won margin on that, that’s still 8% of the original price.
So much for a brand name. But I am more surprised at their deftness and professionalism in cloning these bags to such an extent that you would doubt the original ones.
On a side note, dont ever miss the Myongdong market if you are in Seoul. Its a place worth seeing for fashion / shopping lovers. Directions: Outside Myongdong subway, Near Sejong hotel.
11 Responses
Ciao Hui,
Collecting Excel tricks under the title “Notable Excel Websites (Non-MVP) Edition” is a brilliant idea…
Thank you in the name of all The FrankensTeam.
On our site there is a box with a picture and text highlighting:
This is a no-MVP site
we think ourselves “bad boys” a bit 🙂
For those who would like to know why our site is a no-MVP site, enough to click on the link:
http://goo.gl/lxDszY
Thank you again!
Thanks a lot
I really enjoyed this (newsletter). I must admit that I rarely read an Excel newsletter (and I subscribe to quite a few) all the way though, but this grabbed my attention and before I realized it, I was engrossed in it. I must also admit that most of this I don’t understand, yet. But, it excites me when I do learn something new in Excel. I can’t wait to see how much of this I can implement into my (constantly-evolving) ‘House Budget’ & ‘Family Medical’ worksheets that I have developed over the past few years! I sure hope to see more of these type of newsletters in the future! Thanks!
Thanks for doing this Hui! I appreciate being included.
I like Tom’s tip a lot. I posted about a tool I wrote to automate this at http://yoursumbuddy.com/tables-edit-query-dialog/
EXCELLENT !
Hui, This post is Superb! More over I have always been a fan of Roberto’s work and have learnt a lot from him.
Here are some of my recent contributions
1. Customising markers in a chart – http://www.goodly.co.in/customize-markers-in-a-chart/
2. Charting Hacks to work faster – http://www.goodly.co.in/5-charting-hacks-to-help-you-work-faster/
3. 7 Date formulas to make life easy – http://www.goodly.co.in/date-formulas-in-excel/
4. Customised scrollbar using VBA – http://www.goodly.co.in/customized-scroll-bar-in-excel/
5. Adding Direct Legends – http://www.goodly.co.in/customized-scroll-bar-in-excel/
Hope everyone enjoys!
I like the Excel Ninja Menus.
1. Select a cell or range then move till the 4-way cross appears. Right-Click and drag the selection to another place in the worksheet then, like a ninja, a menu full of skills and throwing stars pops up allowing me to do all kinds of awesomeness.
2. When you click the fill box on a Date and right click and drag it down, a lot of amazing Date options pop up.
I also brand my Excel to remind myself that I’m awesome. In my personal macro workbook I place the following code.
Private Sub Workbook_Open()
Application.Caption = “SuperKrishna’s Awesomeness”
End Sub
My favorite tip goes along with #17. If you try to copy subtotaled data (and in earlier Excel versions filtered data),when you paste it all the data displays instead of just the summarized data.
To get around this, select your summarized data, click on Find and Select tab and then select Go to Special. Click Visible cells Only and click OK. Now paste and you will see that only the summarized data has been copied.
You can also go CTRL+G and then click the Special icon at the bottom of the dialog box.
What a great idea, Chandoo! I’d love to be included in your next edition:) Perhaps a VBA exclusive version?
@Ryan
I will review this concept about 6 months out from the original post and be sure to keep your site in mind
Hui…
That sounds great, Hui:) I just realized I gave credit to Chandoo for the idea and I should have attributed it to you.
Sorry about that!