Reflection on My Singaporean Story

Why are Singaporeans so ‘Kiasu’ (Afraid of losing)?

My mother is one of the most ‘kiasu’ housewives I have ever met in my entire fourteen-year life. She literally bargains for everything she buys. Sometimes, I am really irritated by her way of bargaining. Why must she bargain?

I believe that most housewives have the same mentality that bargaining helps to save money. It might be true as a matter of fact, but, does it really work for everything people buy? It is just not nice when you try to bargain more and more. Shop owners have to earn too. If he agrees to a lower price already, I do not see the need to bargain even more. Compromising should be the essential thing. If both sides agree on a price, close the deal! I really do not understand my mother.

On a family holiday to Hong Kong a few years ago, my mother did what she was the best at again. Once, my family and I all went to a place where there were many stalls like a night market, but they would be there every day without moving. As we walked down the alley in between the two long rows of stalls, we chanced upon a stall selling large keychains. My sister got her eye on one which was like a fox’s tail. My mother then asked for the price. It was eighty Hong Kong dollars.

The stall owner charged my mother 150 dollars for two if she wants. My mother immediately tried to lower the price to 130 dollars. The stall owner then tried to compromise with 140 dollars. In the end, my mother closed the deal with 135 dollars. It took my family ten full minutes of waiting, including the entire bargaining process, and the time my mother took to choose among about ten of them. Happy after such a killing, my mother finally left, elated. She seemed to be the only one happy, with all of us irritated at the long waiting time.

Recently, during the Christmas period, the entire family went out together to Takashimaya for shopping from morning to night. When my mother went past one of her favourite boutiques, the large sign ‘STOREWIDE SALE UP TO 60%’ was like a super strong magnet, which attracted my mother immediately. Again, the rest of the family had to stand outside the boutique like wooden blocks for another fifteen to twenty minutes. My mother has a particular shopping habit, which is to buy more clothes and shoes only during the Great Singapore Sale and festive seasons when many boutiques have a sale going on. Due to this massive sale islandwide, she would go shopping very often during this period of time, and resulting in my family and me waiting for a long period of time outside the boutique. Again.

During the last week of the December holidays, when my family and I went to a night market, my mother chanced upon a packet of five fanciful hairclips. Once again, my mother did what she was the best at.
“How much is a packet of hairclips?” My mother asked the stall owner.

“Nine dollars” The stall owner replied flatly.

The stall owner looked very angry, with tightly knitted brows, sitting on a stool of an empty stall.
“How about six dollars?” My mother started to reduce the price of the packet of hairclips.

“Lowest price can only be eight dollars” The stall owner insisted.

“Seven?” My mother tried to cut the price as much as possible.

“Eight dollars.” The stall owner did not budge.

“Seven-fifty?” My mother tried to get the lowest price possible.

“No! Eight dollars is the minimum! Go away! I do not want to do your business!” The stall owner rebutted hotly.

My mother was taken aback by the stall owner’s temper. By seeing the amount of hairclips left on the shelf behind the stall owner, it seemed like business was not good for the stall owner. This could well be the reason why the stall owner was so bad-tempered. The reason why business was bad for the stall owner could also be his hot temper.

This was also the first I saw my mother fail at bargaining. There is a chinese saying ‘shang de shan duo zhong yu hu’, which means when people try something, usually bad, too many times, they will meet obstacles stopping them from continuing. My mother finally met someone who would make her fail her bargaining. It was the first time I saw my mother fail at bargaining in my entire fourteen-year life. My mother was then particularly grumpy during the entire period of time when we were at the night market, which was not desirable for me as she kept disallowing from buying tidbits which I liked.

One of the most recent cases of bargaining was two weeks ago, when my older sister needed to buy a laptop from her junior college education. There was a promotion going on as we entered Funan Digital Mall. As we walked around, my sister got her eyes on a laptop with a cute little design. It had quite good functions too, with a free mouse. My mother wanted to upgrade a particular system of the laptop for free as the one provided was an older version. The promoter said that it could not be done as the price of upgrading it was sixty dollars and he could only give her a free three-month mobile internet broadband. Satisfied after closing quite a good deal, my mother readily agreed. Another successful bargain for my mother.

Sometimes, I wonder whether my mother could write a book entitled ‘Tips on How to Bargain’. It would definitely be a hit for housewives.

My mother seemed to not bargain so much now whenever she bargains. Maybe the hot-
tempered stall owner served as an experience for her not to bargain too much. This could be in turn good for my father, sister and I as we need not wait for a long period of time again.


Reflection:

I took a long time editing this essay and it can be my blood and sweat. Do give me comments on how I can improve it further. This story is partially true of my mother, I only further exaggerated it by much. Indeed scenes of bargaining and even scenes of housewives being told off my shopkeepers can be seen in Singapore often and it does not serve as a very special sight any more. I find it not quite a nice sight and I do not understand why do people bargain. I only think that bargaining is essential only when the prices are too high, if not, I really do not see the need to bargain any furthermore from the price given by the shopkeepers.