Last Wednesday, in an act of spontaneity, HG and I took ourselves to Times Square over lunch time for the Peddar Warehouse sale (equivalent for us to going from mid-town to Soho). It is the bi-annual sale for staff and friends of Lane Crawford to pick up goodies such as Louboutin pumps for more than 80% off the original price (also a chance for the Lane Crawford group to get rid of stock from the past many seasons). A little like our version of the Barneys Warehouse sale, if you will. About 40-45 minutes for transit (as fast as my pointy Cole Haan heels will take me – I seriously need to reconsider them, I am still feeling the pinching pain today!), we figured that we’d have a good 40-45 minutes of shopping before we had to rush back to the office.

This is not my first Peddar Warehouse sale. Back when I was interning at Chloe back in college, I went to something similar and remembered being relative impressed by the selection. I’d even picked up a pair of white Dior sneakers for HK$800 (roughly US$100). So I was quite excited to go to this one, as I imagined all the goodies I can get at a discount, especially now that I have a constant need for new work shoes. I felt adrenaline rush through as we approached the address, and we saw girls leaving with huge bagfuls of shoe boxes!

Turns out, a few years indeed makes quite a difference to things. To begin with, it used to be located in an office location and entrance was still relatively strict. I had to whip out my Chloe credentials. This time around, it is located in a secluded shopping area of the mall, and it is huge. Entrance was also quite easy, as we whipped out the forwarded email on our iphones and walked in. Turns out, there are lots of Lane Crawford staff and friends. I beelined my way to the size 6 shoe collection. I was disappointed to find that all the shoes my size were either kind of meh or way too tall to be practical. I picked up a pair of red Miu Miu peep toe flats with crystal embellishments for later consideration. As I enviously saw girls struggling with dozens of Louboutin shoe boxes pass by, I wondered how they managed to find anything. Am I looking at the wrong places? Determine, I then explored the other racks, in the hope that not all size 6 shoes are where they should be. I came out with the conclusion that I should’ve either come earlier, or have tiny or really big feet, because there really aren’t anything buy-able left in my size! The selection simple wasn’t that recent or decent. I think I spotted Miu Miu’s from pre-08!

I next moved onto the accessories section in the middle to try my luck. I found some knick knacks such as a crystal headband (which HG thinks looks exactly the same as all the ones I already have – which I disagree with. It’s a similar style, but it is totally different), a hot pink rectangular Louboutin clutch, a gold necklace and a studded belt. I wasn’t in love with any of them, but I wouldn’t mind having them either. They sold bags too. Again, the selection is not great. I saw a lady holding a huge YSL Easy bag covered with studds, in a murky army green/brown color, discounted to around $8000HKD (around $1000USD)… let’s just say, I can see why they couldn’t sell it off at full price.

The way the sale is structured, is that one pair of shoe is on displayed and then there’s a counter where you can go find the other shoe with the shoe box. After 5 minutes in line and it still didn’t move, I looked down at my pair of Miu Miu flats and then looked at the line in front of me, and the many bags of shoes still to be “found” (I am still baffled as to how people can have such big bags of shoes. They can’t all have had no work and really tiny/big feet!). I came to the executive decision that it is not worth it for a pair of flats that I don’t love but wouldn’t mind having.

So I took myself off to the check out line, to pay for the accessories. The line went around a few times and was almost out the door. We estimated that it will take half a hour at laest.  HG and I took stock of my selections – and decided it wasn’t worth the time. They aren’t even that cheap! We hurried back to work empty handed, and was amused to find another girl hurrying in front of us in very much the same situation. So much for sample sales in Hong Kong. I wish I’d remembered to take pictures of my almost buys so I can show and write, but sample sale shopping is just plain exhausting.