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The mall traffic is slow this Sunday afternoon, with more ppl shopping for groceries than buying clothes from Go-Pals. You won't find any high-end goods in this little store. Most are imports from Bangladesh and other developing countries. The sign in front of me, in an attempt to entice the frugal shoppers and those who are tight on their family budget, shouts loudly: "Buy One Get One 50% Off !!"
The ppl walking past by me are mostly ordinary, working class folks: men wearing jeans and baseball caps, women wearing non-brand name ski jackets with toddlers in tow, ear-budded teens with worn-out pack-sacs busy texting to friends, retired seniors walking slowly and aimlessly/purposely on canes.
You won't see any newly-rich or flesh-and-flash types in this mall. This is where you meet the Joe's and Josephine's of main street. Don't get me wrong, I am not anti-rich. But as my HK blogger friend Fresh Designer pointed out, it's important to be in touch with reality (see his comments posted at "不為五斗米折腰 / Speak Truth to Power")
And this mall is part and parcel of that reality.
Photo credit:
I took the above photo with my mobile device
Sent from BlackBerry
22 comments:
I looked up google street Street view map or click HERE
The YMCA is located at Merivale Mall, 1642 Merivale Road, Ottawa and right on top of the shopper drug mart.
I also noticed there were BEST BUY, CIBC, Harvey‘s, Second Cup Mettro Supermarket, etc etc around that area!
The 416/417 hwy intersection is not far away it should be in Nepean within the greater Ottawa area.
這個水平己是很好的了。
我也就是生活在這個階層的!
BBF and HBB This neighborhood is higher than I can afford as I see no WALmart nearby。
I got the feeling that I can only live in a neighborhood where there is a WALmart！！！
space,
你咪扮低下階層,
住得在太古一帶都話自己窮,
你的說法令人懊惱呀，
那麼住在深水埗的人如何呢?
澄清 clarification：
本人只是住在居屋單位，我的消費不屬該區水平，正在艱苦經營維生中。
Space:
Thanks !! Google Earth is amazing, isn't it ?!!
Yes, you are looking at my stomping ground :) The YMCA is on top of Shoppers Drug Mart and I hang around the Merivale Mall area quite often. I go to Best Buy and Second Cup from time to time but avoid Harvey for fear of gaining weight.
You are correct. Merivale Road used to be part of the City of Nepean before regional amalgamation.
Haricot
新鮮人:
>> ... 這個水平己是很好的了
I agree !!
Haricot
Space:
What are BBF and HBB??
Haricot
新鮮人 and Space:
I am not up-to-date on the current standard of living in HK. All I remember is that I lived in the North Point Housing Estate 廉租屋, and before that my family had rented a small 板間房 in Wan chai.
Haricot
HBB hari big brother 閣下
BBF big brother fresh 新鮮兄
I believe I can only survive with the WALmart supplies equivalent cost standard and living standard ！
BBS:
I even went to the online Urban Dictionary to look for the meanings of HBB and BBF !!
As to the WALmart living standard, it's always a good idea to live within the limits of one's own budget.
哈哈哈！ BBS sounds like Big Bull Shit!
Yes, I hope we have walmart nearby in here too but
沃爾瑪 只在中國內地開業！
Space:
Does it mean Walmart is not competitive enough to open shops in the tight HK market?
Haricot
香港有很多十蚊店了!
BBF and HBB，canada has that dollarshop, dollarmart, etc etc 1 加元另 GST PST HST 港元還未貶值，上次旅遊，是約 7算折算回港幣都不用 $10。如今港元隨美元大大貶值，才約等如$10。
加拿大 Walmart 並不是 1元店！
Does it mean Walmart is not competitive enough？
這我不知沃爾瑪有沒有曾經在香港做過可行性報告 feasibility study！
新鮮人:
香港的十蚊店約相等於加拿大的一元商店。
Wal-Mart 的市場是比一元商店「高人一等」。
Space:
沃爾瑪的貨品多是從「廉價勞工」的地方製造購入,然後以低價在「銀水高」(i.e higher exchange rate)的北美售出,所以我相信Wal-Mart 在已經是競爭劇烈的香港市場,找一個niche market立足,實在是不容易的一件事。
HBB，Awaiting for your moderation！
【維基百科】A niche market is the subset of the market on which a specific product is focusing; therefore the market niche defines the specific product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the demographics that is intended to impact.
Every single product that is on sale can be defined by its niche market. As of special note, the products aimed at a wide demographic audience, with the resulting low price (due to price elasticity of demand), are said to belong to the mainstream niche—in practice referred to only as mainstream or of high demand. Narrower demographics lead to elevated prices due to the same principle. So to speak, the Niche Market is the highly specialized market that tries to survive among the competition from numerous super companies.
In practice, product vendors and trade businesses are commonly referred as mainstream providers or narrow demographics niche market providers (colloquially shortened to just niche market providers). Small capital providers usually opt for a niche market with narrow demographics as a measure of increasing their gain margins.
Nevertheless, the final product quality (low or high) is not dependent on the price elasticity of demand; it is associated more with the specific needs that the product is aimed at satisfy and in some cases with brand recognition with which the vendor wants to be associated (e.g., prestige, practicability, money saving, expensiveness, planet environment conscience, power.)
HK should be a good place to try out Walmart provided that HK$ is peggged with US$! So does it suggest that Walmart has the intelligence about the peg is going to break soon!
SBB:
Thank you for the detailed info re niche market
I think the final decision re possible decoupling of the HKD from USD rests with Beijing and there is a next-to-nil chance that Wal Mart would have access to such high-level intelligence.
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