I'm stuck here while he's in San Francisco

My brain is going to fry any moment now. I've been going thru line budgets, shoe budgets and reps have been showing up everyday. It's nuts and I'm at the beginning only.

Meanwhile my partner was on a trip down to San Francisco and told me about the wonderful 3 days he had there. Here's some camera phone pics of his trip:

Apparently this Westfield Mall in downtown San Francisco is very similar to our Oakridge Mall. However, it'd be Oakridge on steriods... like Eastern Bloc Olympic stuff!

I'm really confused, this Samovar Tea lounge place at the Yerba Buena Gardens across from the Moscone Center was where my partner had lunch. He seemed to love and despise it at the same time. He's weird.

Seoul, I hear you calling

What a rush of a day, I'm in Seoul! Arriving in the afternoon yesterday, I head right to the Dongdaemun Market. It's origins dates from the original market of the city. It houses huge malls, wholesale markets, manufacturers and street level wholesale vendors. The place is supposed to be the world's largest wholesale/retail market. It very well could be, friends tell me there are tens of thousands of vendors and shops in the area. Tourists, locals and buyers all converge to this massive zone of commerce.

Prepare to wear out some shoes and spend a few days if it's your first visit. The wholesale market operates from noon onwards to late at night. I've got a few favourite suppliers that I like to hit but even today I got lost finding them again. At that time, If I was in the retail parts of the market it'd be a mad crush of people.

Afterwards I head over to Myongdong to meet up with a friend. The area is Seoul's Ginza district. It's not quite that but it has that vital vibrancy and energy of it's Tokyo counterpart. There's nothing to describe what a main Asian street shopping district is like. It's so far from what Robson is, it'd be insulting to really name it in the same breadth. The density sets it apart from streets in Europe and the neon signs really give it an outworldly appearance. I love it here.

Hong Kong Shopping

It's fitting that I find myself in one the worlds best shopping cities, Hong Kong. I think in order for any city to be a great shopping destination you need lots of people. Check out the throngs of locals and visitors on a Monday afternoon in Causeway Bay! A couple of days more of this and I'm off to Korea!

The streets of Milan are paved with bags

Last week I came back from a 6 day buying trip. I went with a girlfriend, for her this would be her first trip... for me this would more times than I have fingers.

The plane trip itself was exhaustive as we had to transfer 2 times and had some unexpected layovers. Once we got there we hit the ground running. We hit Duomo, Monte Napoleaone and Spiga right away. Those areas are really the center of the world when it comes to shopping. They have like 3 Prada shops in the same block! Italian made stuff is generally cheaper than in Canada and when you factor in all the various taxes and duties, we still come out like 30% cheaper than Holts.

I really like Bottega bags despite the brand being older, I found one that wasn't all old lady like and snapped it up. I must say this trip I was the ideal of self control, I only bought a few things. My GF on the other hand went hog wild. For fear of reprisals from her husband, let's just say she did very well.

It's 2AM at the Central train station in Milan. They've got the only 24 hour supermarket around. There's lots of people around, must be the art exhibit going on.