THIS GSS, I've been hit by something I like to call GBR.
You see, with the Great Singapore Sale comes the Great Buyer's Remorse – which is when you take your purchases home, peel off the tissue wrapping and ask yourself: "What was I thinking?"
It all started when my favourite labels invited me to their preview sales early last month.
As soon as I got the call, I swopped my four-inch heels for ballet flats and hightailed it down to the stores to see if the merchandise I'd been eyeing would now go for at least 30 per cent off.
When the faithful sales assistant at an Italian label said, "Shoes and ready-to-wear are 50 per cent off", I spluttered in disbelief.
"I’m sorry, could you repeat that?" I said while thinking to myself: "Silk crepe clothes and towering stilettos at half-price! Charge!"
Now, a colleague recently noted in this newspaper that retailers, deprived of business as consumers like her turned thriftier in the recession, went all out with massive discounts this GSS. This meant that designer labels were suddenly in "hers and everyone else’s" price range.
Well, and mine.
So, like a hurricane, I ripped through the store and emerged with three dresses and a pair of shoes.
Then I bulldozed my way to the other end of Orchard Road to my favourite Dutch label and handed over the plastic for two more dresses and two skirts.
Laden with shopping bags, I staggered back to where I started and picked up two more pairs of shoes on a whim – they were pretty, they were at half-price and, most importantly, they fitted.
It was like opening a can of Pringles potato chips: Once I’d popped, I couldn’t stop. Before I knew it, I'd racked up five pairs of shoes in four days. Last weekend, I brought the total up to six pairs of shoes in one month.
Of course, I'm now kicking myself – and I'm not even wearing one of the new ones today – or all the impulse buys, which are what they really were.
And let’s not even bring up the charges on my credit card account. As I struggle to make sense of the string of numbers on my latest statement, I grapple with the realisation that I should have been more disciplined with my finances, what with the recession and all.
That’s the thing about a sale – it makes you throw all logic and practicality out the window. Why? Because that initial emotional payoff – that sense of euphoria at scoring something for half the price and twice the value – is too good to give up.
The retailers in this nation of great shoppers know this all too well. So we shall all brace ourselves in this last stretch of GSS when discounts get steeper and, consequently, buyers' remorse may grow deeper.
That said, is anyone up for a pair of brand new, patent lilac-with-a-slight-grey-tinge pair of slingback heels from Miu Miu? They’re going at half price. Size 37. Call moi.