ITC Mangga Dua is a shopping heaven for everyone especially for local Indonesian women. It's a big shopping complex next to the wholesale shops of Mangga Dua in the heart of Jakarta city. Why I said especially for local Indonesian? Because at there, bargain the price is a MUST otherwise you'd have to pay more. And usually when you buy more, you can slash bigger price from the original stated by the seller :)
 |
| Entrance of ITC Mangga Dua approaching Chinese New Year |
There was a big fake blossomed cherry tree outside the main door as Mom and I entered into the building. Chinese New Year is coming soon, in fact, is only two weeks away from today. At the front part, you could find shops selling luggage from many different sizes plus China's made rectangular shopping bag made of plastic materials, some were decorated with cartoon pictures like Doraemon, Hello Kitty, etc., which could be very useful to keep the shopped items inside.
Colourful sandals comes with so many varieties, colours, and sizes were fitted by many ladies surrounding the open concept shop. The price was reasonable too, which many were hard to resist from buying. As I passed them by, I heard one lady uttered this to her friend, "The last time I bought that kind of sandal here, I used it only 2 months and couldn't wait to throw it out!" Well, I was not very sure why she said that but perhaps the quality followed the price she paid, exactly like the following Chinese quote said, "一份钱一分货，" read: "Yi fen qian, yi fen huo."
Soon after you could find varieties of accessories like necklaces, brooches, bracelet, rabbit fur kind of key hanger or usually attached with the handbag, etc. displayed fully in a limited space of rented shop. Next to it, many beautiful imitation branded bags were displayed and hung. All the well known brands like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada, Long Champ, Burberry, Issey, etc. were made so looked alike that those who did not want or could not afford such original expensive bags, still could show off with the imitation types.
 |
| Glimpse view of ITC Mangga Dua - Jakarta, Indonesia |
There were so many things sold in the building. It consists of six levels full of stuffs and people. From wearing stuffs like clothes, bags, shoes, accessories, make up, baby items, underwear or sexy dress, watches, measured spectacles and sunglasses, and many more to DVDs, food and drink stalls to quench your thirst after bargaining and to fill your hungry stomach after tired walking and shopping.
The sellers were skilful in talking and offering other stuffs sold in the same shop saying that the items were good (in quality), made in Korea, etc., which of course would come with a much higher price than the local produced ones. Like when Mom visited a shop to buy a lotion, the seller managed to offer other make up products to her (by looking at Mom's face on what kind of cosmetics she was using), and managed to sell eyeliner, eye brow pencil, and lipstick, while almost selling eye shadow set, face powder, and so on. Haha... They would also offer the latest or trendy items that looked very interesting and made people hard to resist not to buy.
Money would go out from the purse so easily just like a running stream if you couldn't hold your desire. Like from the initial purpose to collect sunglasses that she made to order yesterday, she ended up buying few other stuffs on hand. Lol!!! And me? I'd lost interest on buying these kind of stuffs. I'd changed my behaviour to only buy what I need rather than what I want or otherwise the things would be gifts given to others. In the past it might be different story as I would not only buy what I need but also buy what looked nice and cool. Hehehe... :P
Anyway, it was still a great thing to do to visit the place. You could see the real Indonesian way of selling and bargaining, the vast variety of things available, and taste many local food, drink, and snack available. Just hold on to your purse a little bit tighter, maybe wear one eye patch so you wouldn't see too much hahaha..., and visit few more shops to check the price and bargain more to get the most reasonable price for the things you want to buy. All the best and hope you enjoy the experience there!!! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment