The ‘devastating financial tsunami’ (this is one of the best phrases that I’ve heard in relation to the ‘current economic crisis’, I’ve seen it in print, the legislators are using it and it has now passed into everyday conversation more as a joke than anything else) has seen me become an even bigger bargain-hunter and conveniently for me, HK retailers have been accommodating my stinginess.

Tung Chung is the home of the only outlet stores in HK and it’s located quite close to where we live. My last visit found the best bargain of my entire life.

Each store had signs with their discounts – 30, 40, 50, 60, 70% off were not uncommon. I perused a number of high end stores that I generally don’t bother with because even though it’s an outlet centre, I still think they’re ridiculously expensive. I decided I may as well check them out to see the after discount price.

As I entered the Ralph Lauren Polo store, a sign caught my eye. Anything with a red dot would be discounted a further 30%. The signs all looked promising, now to find something that I liked. At that moment, a pair of pants caught my eye.

These pants are nothing to write a blog about in that there was nothing special about them; they were wool and cashmere, brown with a thin pin-stripe, wide-legged at the bottom and would look great with a pair of high boots and a cream or possibly white coloured shirt if I felt conservative. The price however – wow!

I picked up the tag and saw the first price HKD4,000. These were marked down multiple times until they were just over HKD300. They were almost worth buying just for the discount but good sense prevailed and I tried them on.

They were a perfect fit.

I headed to the cash register where the barcode was scanned and the new price came up – HKD277.

The discount is about AUD700 to AUD50.

I have a new pair of pants that previously wouldn’t have even been looked at. I love a bargain.

Now to find that shirt.

* Thanks to Spiderbait for the title to this post.