Monday, September 28, 2009

The little shop of random things

I stepped in and at once, recoiled. Something was not right. Why were the shelves half-empty and what were these boxes doing on the floor?

"Hi, are you renovating?" I found the lady and asked.

"No..." She smiled sadly.

"You are relocating??!! Nooooooooooo!" I was shocked. Where were they going? I started thinking of just how far would I travel for this shop. Choa Chu Kang? Bishan? Yio Chu Kang? Ang Mo Kio?

"No..." She gave me another sad smile.

"Oh. My. Goodness. You're closing down????????????" I could not believe it.

"Yes..."

"But why???????"

"Curren contract end oredi. Rent too high lah... cannot oredi. What to do?"

"But... but you sell... like... everything!"

She smiled at me and then turned to answer the phone. It was probably another aghast customer calling to check if the horrible news was really true.

As for me, I was stunned. This nameless shop had been my haunt for many many years now. It really was nameless. Even though they gave you a receipt, it only said 'THANK YOU' at the top. Oh wait, it just struck me that maybe that was the name of the shop! THANK YOU! If you don't believe me, check out the picture of their last receipt to me.


















It was one of those tiny shops that sell random things. Things that I never knew existed. Things that were actually amazing inventions. Things that came with some hilarious instructions. Sample this (I had blogged about this here):

Special Function
This glove is made from high quality microfiber nylon No smell, No harm for the body. It Can get rid of the dirt which attached on the skin, strengthen our body and cosmetics.Even more,it Can Refresh the cell.strengthen the circling of blood therefore makes the skin smooth,gentle,and soft
YiFan bath glove comfortable and convenient

Using Method
You Shoud put some soap on your body body before use the bath towel The glove can Suck a little water when it comes across water. this can strengthen the function of cleaning dirt. It suit for all kinds of soaps and other products which can protect the skin.

And more here:


















I had bought the first pair of my amazing bathing gloves from this shop. Following which, I was flooded with orders from relatives and friends (yes, even guys!) and subsequently bought at least 12 more pairs. I had bought my amazing mirror cleaner from this shop. I had bought my amazing facial sponge from this shop. I had bought my amazing four-in-one pedicure set from this shop. I had included this shop as one of the landmark places in the Singapore tour for my parents and in-laws. Every time I'd be early for badminton, I'd pop by the shop and see if they had anything new for me. They always did.

She put the phone down and turned back to me, jolting me out of my thoughts.

"Last two days. Clearance sale. 30% off. Until tomorrow onni. Tomorrow close down oredi." She smiled.

And I was there the next day. On its last day. To celebrate its existence and mourn its closing down.

There wasn't much left to buy; I just roamed around the shop, looking at the half-empty shelves, remembering all the times the shop and its little trinkets had surprised me.

Thank you, 'THANK YOU'.



17 comments:

Revs said...

GOLD!!

Lovely Post!! :)

Nidhi said...

SILVER!!!
THANK YOU sayesha for such amazing posts. yeah...we really dont realise the importance of such random things in life unless we r made to part with them!

Maryum said...

i m lucky these days=)
bronze....nidhi got silver just a few seconds ahead of me.. thanks once again.. i reread ur glove post and laughed my heart out..
luv
maryum

Maryum said...

i m lucky these days=)
bronze....nidhi got silver just a few seconds ahead of me.. thanks once again.. i reread ur glove post and laughed my heart out..
luv
maryum

Porkodi (பொற்கொடி) said...

:( Did you happen to ask what they would do for a living next? Feels so bad to see closing down these days :(( Why can't The Bhai get them some affordable place for rent elsewhere? Who can if not Bhai? :)

~ Lopa said...

That is sad... :(
So what are they going to do now for living? This is really bad...

OK, sad things apart...
For those instructions... hmmmm i guess they translated from chinese to english, using google translate and copy pasted it ... lol...what ya say??

I have seen many chinese students going here that way in their assignments and getting remarks for their english grammer ;)

But it's not their fault, It's Google Translate's fault ;) hehehe

Anonymous said...

You are awarded :) I'm a regular here but comment rarely.

http://mypricelesslife.wordpress.com/2009/09/29/i-dont-get-tired-of-the-red-carpet/

Ijji said...

dey sure did sell some pretty interesting things..bad tht thy gotta close... btw while dey were still in business, help frm an editor would have surely been a blessing fr dem... :)

Neha said...

It is very very sad to learn your favourite shops shutting down because they cannot afford the rent...things have become so expensive that small shops just cannot survive in this huge ocean dominated by big sharks...and the sadder part is that we just cant do anything about it...sad :(

Thisisme said...

oh my!!
n guess what..when i had seen those gloves at ur blo..i spotted the same in london and went ahead n bought them :D
they really r good :)

Baatein unkahi si said...

I can so understand this. I miss such small shops which sell every knock knacks here in US.But I remember such small shops in my hometown.
Sometimes we get so used to small things around us, we do seem to notice that they are no longer there.

Stupidosaur said...

Well, I did feel a little sad on reading, though I don't know the shop.

Tell them to run shop from their/your house oredi!

Thousif Raza said...

thats so very sad to hear, i kno what relationships grow, once we like a store, sheesh that's o sad news ya, hope you find a new one as good as the last one, i know its tough but here's to hope.. good luck

take care and keep writing...........

Neha said...

Hi,

Though i am a regular at ur blog but commenting for the first time... U write real well with a different style of urs...
Need a lil favour from u .. I have an work opportunity from a co in Singapore. As you have been living there for years, Need some pointers from you in terms of basic checks and things that i should take care ...

Really appreciate your help .. As i dont know anybody there who could guide/help me ...

Thanks a lot,

Regards,
Neha

Sayesha said...

#Revs,
Thanks. :)

#Nidhi,
THanks. :)

#Maryum,
Oh yeah you were around during the glove days! :D

#Porkodi,
She said she had not thought about what's next yet. Hope she finds something soon!

#~Lopa,
Hope she finds a new and cheap shop space soon!

Yep, I think it's a direct translation from Japanese to English. :)

#Lively,
Thanks! :D

#It jobs,
I am not an editor in a newspaper, there wasn't much I could do for them. :(

#N,
:(

#Thisisme,
They rock, don't they?? :)

#Dil se,
Very true!

#Stupido,
Haha... sure sure! I'll be the only customer! :P

#Thousif,
Yeah I am on the lookout! :)

#Neha,
Sure, just drop me an email with your queries: sayeshaontherocks@gmail.com

phatichar said...

touching

Stupidosaur said...

err...serious. At least in India people do run small shops out of their houses if you 'remember'.

Anyways, if I comment twice, I don't become one more bewda.

So " n bewdas got fultu talli!" should read "bewdas got n times fultu talli"

But you too comment, so " The bewdas and a bartender got n times fultu talli"

So mention of number of bewdas. Only how many times became talli. One bewda can become talli any number of times, and it will be stated in a technically correct manner.

Now you must be looking around for the newspaper right ;)

So another idea for comments count:

'n line-ups for newspaper thwacks!'

Aaah my head is overworked with work these days. So never mind whatever junk I just dumped.