"I'm Not That Big Of A Deal"

On my way to work on Friday morning, I saw a long line of people outside the Landmark and Central Buildings in Central. The narrow walkways were so crammed with people that I had to make a detour and use another MTR station entrance.

After checking with the Wife, I found out that it was the queue for the Anya Hindmarch environmentally-friendly canvas carrier bag :



The South China Morning Post on Friday printed a lengthy story on the queues that had actually begun on Thursday (devoting more words to it than to the coordinated triad attacks on the businesses of a local conglomerate). One guy that was interviewed by the paper admitted he had taken the day off to buy one bag for his wife and one for his sister.

All that effort, for a canvas bag that costs HK$120 (S$23.50) - considerably more than similar canvas shopping bags being sold at local supermarkets. No doubt, half the people in line just wanted to buy an Anya bag at a low price, and the other half are thinking of reselling them for a profit.

A local secondhand luxury goods resale chain has said it would pay no more than HK$500 (S$100) for The Bag. Sure, it's a 400% profit for the scavengers, but think absolute dollars.



Once again, Hongkongers are expending time and effort to fork out money for an overhyped, overvalued item. Hello Kitty and Snoopy dolls at McDonald's, multi-million dollar apartment units ... it's the same old story. I suspect that things will be no different in Singapore too.

The Wife already has The Bag - it was a gift from a friend who had bought it in the UK. Seeing such a craze for it in HK, she has decided not to use it for the next week or so, in case it attracts some unnecessary attention.

I'm sure if Philippe Starck ever designs a toilet brush for Louis Vuitton, there'll be a waiting list for it in Hong Kong.

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News updates on the battleground in Hong Kong and Taipei where the bags were released on Friday. Did Al Gore ever say, "We've got to fight to save the environment" ?