Bargain Sale Survival

The Daimaru Goodbye Dilemma

It was the very last day of the 'closing down' sale for Daimaru, Melbourne Central's answer to label luxury. Daimaru has been renowned for its merchandise ranging from Versace to DKNY and of course including favourite local designers like Morrisey, Collette Dinnigan, Charlie Brown and Jenny Bannister just to name a few.

My colleagues and I, (the self-confessed shop-a-holics that we are!) decided not to miss this huge event.

Cathy, Maxine and myself marched to Daimaru in an excited yet sombre mood. As soon as we set foot in the place we were greeted by the "70% off everything" signs written in bold red letters.

This sent Cathy in a state of frenzy; she ran wild in circles and scoured the remnants of what was once a baby pink Versace ensemble. Maxine and I formed a "search party" together and were on a mission to locate our own pink treasures!

With only 25 minutes left in our lunch break, we decided to rummage through the depleted handbag section. It was like an alien world. Empty shelves, stark white walls and plastic barrels filled with strange green satin handbags. We skimmed to the very bottom of the barrels in desperation to find something tamer.

As our handbag efforts were not successful we hoped to try our luck with the garments again.

The second floor was filled with women, who were shoulder to shoulder in a zombie like state. It was like cattle being rounded up to the slaughterhouse! Being a vegetarian, I was absolutely disgusted at this thought and tried to console myself. Feeling the cool silk of a very pretty Morrissey shirt made me feel much better until a rather "mad" woman ran up to me and snatched the shirt out of my hands. Before I could yell in protest, she ran like crazy to the pay register. I stood there in shock and disbelief.

All around me there was pushing and shoving taking place. I noticed that a tug-of-war occurred between a blonde haired woman and a brunette. They both had their greedy paws on the same red DKNY dress.

Not one to butt my nose in, I honed in on a caramel coloured cashmere sweater instead which had my name written all over it. I thought to myself, "This will look perfect with my new camel stiletto shoes!" Maxine was admiring the sweater too, when like a bolt of pink lightening, Cathy rejoined our little shopping team with an armful of pink garments including a cool Jenny Bannister skirt and demanded I hand over the sweater.

"Well fine," I thought. "She can have it. I have too much of that colour in my wardrobe anyway."

Within seconds, Cathy snatched up the sweater and ran to the pay registers to tally up the costs.

Shortly after, we were pleased to see that Cathy had composed herself. She confessed later on that the "70% off" signs had caused her a moment of temporary insanity.

With Maxine and I empty-handed, we realised that we hadn't handled the frenzy of the closing down sale very well at all. It was just too confusing.

Here I was thinking I was a shop-a-holic - had I been cured? Or perhaps it was just a case of someone else out-shopping me this time round! Maybe Cathy had better bargain hunting skills than I did? No, impossible!

I decided I needed further education on this issue. How could I possibly shop again in a bargain sale and survive?

I gave Cathy an ultimatum. "Shop with me again soon, or you'll never see that Jenny Bannister skirt."

A threat is a threat. She took it seriously enough. She swore on her new Manolo Blahinks we would shop together again. I was satisfied with this.

As we waved goodbye to Daimaru, we grabbed a latte to toast what was once an empire of style.

- Belinda Tartaglia