As was the case this time last month, Kinokuniya has the following three titles headlining their Essential Reads shelf at Takashimaya in Orchard Road: The Secret Garden—the marvellous old classic for advanced twelve year olds (though what sense such a local youngster could make of a glorious English garden in the Tropics is difficult to fathom); Black Beauty, another great read for the same age-group and gender; and finally — left to right along the top shelf—Austen's Emma.
Unchanged over fully five weeks now on this prominent display in the stand beside the register.
Tried and true performers undoubtedly. They would not have held their place there otherwise.
Made one wonder about the other stores in the chain — KL, the parent store in Tokyo, Sydney. The variance would be interesting.
Had it not been so busy the visual merchandising manager might have been paged over the loudspeakers. How long exactly had these titles headlined on that shelf? What were sales numbers? They might have had profiles of buyers, age breakdowns &etc.
Could adults on this island here be reading a horsey love story? In Black Beauty was there a love greater than that for the horse? It was strange.
Queues at all registers and enquiry points even in the middle of the day. Some of this might have been the panic already.
A middle-aged Spaniard seeking the New Yorker cartoon selection was met at one counter. The large format collected edition of the cartoons, it might have been, she had bought previously. This second was for a present.
For the current Hemingway reading the chance encounter was perfect for background. Yes, the bulls are wounded by the mounted picadors with their long lances before the torero takes over. Occasionally the horses that carry these mounts are impaled by the bulls. This is what the novices in The Sun Also Rises are warned against watching — the killing of the bulls is the lesser part of the gore, according to Jake, Hemingway's narrator.
The Spaniard had attended only one bull-fight and would not attend another, she said. In her parts, the civilised north—where the runs in Pamplona continue—the fights are now banned, the lady confirming recent newspaper reports.
Takashimaya is one corner back from the dead centre of the prime retail hub here in Singapore. The Ion building on the corner of Orchard and Patterson clearly marks the bulls-eye. The cross-road at this chief junction on Orchard is Scott one side and Patterson the other—a common, confusing discontinuity in this city.
The width of the boulevards on the corner, the grandiose, gargantuan entries to the towers, the paving with its public art (highly enamelled baby elephants in the main currently) proclaim the fact for any first-timer: top-end A list shopping.
Forget Collins, Bourke and George Streets back home. Orchard packs a far bigger punch. This is big-purse platinum consumer category. State of the art. Thirty metre trees along the pavement soften the streetscape. Giant screens wash shoppers in colour and sound. Jewel-box store windows one side and traditional street vendors selling from their tri-shaws the other. Times Square could not offer more. Not the Champs Elysee, Dubai or Shanghai. Orchard Road was in a class of its own.
The sci-fi entry portico at Ion stands four storeys high, aluminium limb-like tubes carrying a canopy inspired by animation jungle scenes. It would not be easy to catch the effect in a photograph. To get the scale and form the rabbit ears pose at ground level would be completely lost. There were many sizing up the prospect this afternoon.
Crowds were not especially large. With only a couple of weeks remaining to Chrissy—two weekends only—there ought to have been more foot traffic. The retailers here labour under the double disadvantage of the over-powering heat two or three months of the year, and then the rains for a similar term.
A number of early sales were a surprise. Giordano had heaped tees on a front table for $10. Years ago there were news reports of Singaporeans flying to Melbourne for the post-X sales. At that point possibly Orchard was less well developed. At present one would be mad to swap Orchard for any of our shopping precincts.
Around eighty per cent Chinese here; Malay about ten and Indian something less. You would not know it navigating Orchard on Google maps. Nor from the display shelves at Kinokuniya Singapore. Book titles and street names fit the advertising throughout the city: where fashion, style and sophistication are projected, invariably Western faces are shown—a touch of indefinable Eurasian if at all.
The Kinokuniya third floor is shared with Cartier one side and Mont Blanc the other. Around on the other side of the escalators The HourGlass display couldn't be spied from a distance. (Out on the street later the mystery was solved eventually — "Contemporary Horological Art", in one of the attached Rolex hoardings.) Prada and LV maintain street presence on ground at Ion.
Crossing from there to Marks & Spencer on the other side of Scott Road pedestrians are funnelled by escalator down an aircon underground corridor, again lined with by all manner of candy-coloured stores. Through the heat of June-July, and the rain of the current period, the capture must be complete.
A great deal of construction around Isetan tower was odd to find so late in the season. The works underway did not seem to be connected with the recent flooding on the street reported in the newspapers. Forecourt re-decoration possibly. Entry, stamp of address and sense of arrival clearly recognised on this block particularly. The work-crews at Isetan must have been going 24/7, judging by the state of collapse of three or four of the men within the pavement cubicle that had been commandeered out front. Going past one of the lads was adjusting some improvised cushioning on the bottom rung of the ladder where he was trying to rest his head. A sheet of plastic lay beneath the lads, all bright red company polos. Busy, car-honking Orchard Road and the endless stream of shoppers failed to disturb.
Tang's Christmas Store stood opposite the little booth where the men were getting some shut-eye. Moss-green pagoda roofs were a feature, added later possibly. The tower was set back a good way from the street. It was only from the Scott corner that the full pagoda effect higher up came into view. A wink of an eye and a shopper was returned to tenth century heartland China in the middle of one of the celebrated dynasties. From the seat beside the booth where the men were dreaming the effect was less grand. Still the brutalist concrete finish of the facade on that side gave a little something.
A lion stood beside the Clinique entrance. On the other side fairy trees and lights carrying the notice TANG's Elephant Parade GALLERY. It no doubt brightened for the after-work shoppers. Mounted steel struts carried all sorts of other decorations of the season, one literary citation on a curling parchment scroll among them.
He Has Made
Everything Beautiful
In Its Time
Dull lemon yellow. Parchment proper would have been ineffective on cement panels.
The source was the surprise. All the grim, ornery matter from memory in that book, and yet there it was undeniably referenced in two foot font on the Tang building on Orchard Road: Ecclesiastes (3:11).
The Chinese could put one to school for bible study here. Impressive church spires abound. Commentaries on the Bible frequently found in hand. On the buses gold and silver crosses common over décolletages.
After so much trooping around and gawking a cafe seemed a good idea. Beside the Marks & Spencer outlet on the other side of Scott Road, opposite Ion, a small gathering of tables and wicker chairs. No damage possible with a single cafe. It bought you entre to the most salubrious establishment.
The intention had been to catch breath; a short sit and survey from another angle. Then the apple from the bag before lunch back at the Uncle's stall opposite Bugis. That too was a fine look-out and Uncle an out and out card. The poor man was still trying to get the number of the "China-girl" luncheon companion of a few months back. The other day he was offering marriage.
During the cafe however skies opening, bringing on an early lunch. Prawn, roasted tatters, light mayo salad as expected. It said clearly on the menu: thirteen dollars odd. Fair enough. No complaints on Orchard Road. Being able to share in all the Christmas cheer with that entree fair bargain—raining cats and dogs though it was on that exposed veranda.
Yet the bill when arrived gave you a decent sock between the eyes. Twenty three dollars plus.
That meant the cafe was a full red tenner.
Starbucks was $5.50 here. $4.50 the library cafe. Nothing to choose between them.
Slightly better at The Coffee Connoisseur on Victoria Street might have fetched seven or seven fifty. In the plush cafes of Tanjong Pagar, the constituency of the former PM, current Senior Mentor Lee Kwan Yew, you paid $5.50 sitting on reupholstered retro chairs amidst fine lounge music. Another order entirely Orchard Road, especially on the Scott corner. Service charge the possible factor, or GST. How to enquire?
Purchased at Kinokuniya, This Way For the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, Tadeusz Borowski. Another Auschwitz survivor who subsequently suicided (turning on the oven in this case). Challenging your imaginative capacities from the first pages.
NB. Confirmation today in the S. T. Orchard Road is the Premier shopping strip on the globe. Announced by the Paris-based Presence Mystery Shopping—400 retail outlets in 30 cities carefully assessed. This was no slap-dash, shady on-line survey, clearly.
George Street, Sydney No. 6
The Ginza, Tokyo 9
Bond Street, London lamentable 10
Wosre still, Champs Elysees failed to figure in the top bracket. No longer able to rest on its laurels.
Despite a less than exhaustive investigation, your scribe was right on the money a month ago.
Come see the famed street before it sinks. (Further flooding recently and much discussion on how to rescue the situation, whether by developing a bigger series of run-off ponds, deepening the relevant canal; &etc.)
The Straits Times, p. B8 Tue. 10 Jan 2012
No comments:
Post a Comment