Shopping and malls

Responding to my post about malls in Singapore, my niece told me a similar story about her trying to find a way out of a mall in Hong Kong, and remarked something to the effect of “Huge malls seems to be an Asian thing.”  Seems like it though I would add that Asia may be trying to emulate the US, but boy does the US have a long way to go!  Anyway, malls certainly seem to be the place for buying basic groceries and household things for the middle class.  After moving into my house (actually a day before that ), my first stop was Botani Square, which is one of the newest of giant, ugly malls.  But it is close to the house and has a huge department store where I could get a few more things I needed.  Giant and Ace Hardware, are two of the stores that carry many of the comfort of home (in both senses of the term) for many expats.  The former is a huge grocery/department store where one can get all kinds of things or rather most things that one would need.  The latter is a very fancy version of Ace Hardware in the US.  The one I have been to is a short of combination of Ace, Walmart, and Target.

At Giant, the food is not so fresh and for that there are other stores (and local markets stating though I’m told the meat is not safe to eat.  Later I went to one and it had a great variety of fruits and veggies).  So I went to Giant.  One can get most basics there but everything is expensive (e.g a crappy plastic dish rack about US$10) and western food particularly so.  For example, two pounds (1 kg) of oats are about 10 US $.  250g of Edam cheese is about $20, a jar of jelly about $4-6.   I did not see nuts on the shelves but other things you normally eat are all super expensive.  But in addition to going to buy some basics (like glass jars, mothballs, etc) I went to check out what it was like to get around without a car.  It was doable.  I went by angkot and came back by cab (available because it was a huge mall probably impossible had I been at a local market).  

Since then I have been twice to some local shopping streets.  They are busy and crowded, and certainly cheaper than the mall.  They reminded me very much of the parts of  Bombay I used to frequent with my mother as a child.  As in Bombay, a row of shops along a street (or along one street of a neighborhood) sell electronics, the next household stuff, the next fabric, etc.  I also used to shop in such crowded places in Cali, Colombia.  Unfortunately, this area of Bogor is not within walking distance of the house and so I don’t know whether it will become my regular go-to place.