Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Taipei Part VII: Shin Kong Mitsukoshi


Me just a few minutes after entering the store.


After reserving tickets for an evening bus back to Taichung, Kevin and I headed across the street to check out a huge multi-story department store, Mitsukoshi, called Shin Kong San Yue (新光三越) in Taiwan. Mitsukoshi, as you might have guessed from the name, is a Japanese company, and the store definitely retained a good amount of its peculiar Japanese flavor.

Kevin and I were lucky enough to arrive just a few minutes before the store's opening. A crowd of about one hundred eager Taiwanese (and two Americans) clustered around the two main entrances, as the air conditioning flowed onto the street from the open doors. At exactly 11 am, the crowds surged forward into the bright, glossy interior of the store.


Note the row of salesgirls at the left in the picture. There is a row facing them as well, just on the other side of the walkway.


As you can see in the two pictures above, we stepped into a brilliantly lit, lavish interior whose paths were lined with identically dressed sales girls with deferentially lowered eyelids. As customers entered the store are started down these paths, the salesgirls would bow deeply from the hips, several at one time, and chorus "huan ying guan ling" ("welcome") with their gazes still fixed steadily on the floor. It was entirely unlike anything I've ever experienced before. After about a minute or so of this synchronized, stereo-sound greeting performance, the saleswomen returned to their posts behind counters and beside shoe racks to begin the day's work of selling merchandise.


Kevin on the first floor we found that sold male accoutrements (maybe it was the fourth floor?)


As you can see from the picture above, there was virtually nothing to distinguish this store from high-end department stores in New York like Saks Fifth Avenue or Bloomingdale's. There were myriad luxury and upper-end brands and products (can you make out the "Polo Ralph Lauren" sign over Kevin's shoulder in the picture above?), and more than ten levels of shopping overall! Kevin took pity on me once we'd reached the tenth floor and agreed to look for an elevator rather than face ten descending escalators (the horror!!!).

In the escalator we were immediately greeted by another employee, this one decked out from head to toe in black, pink, and white, from the top of her flower-trimmed hat to her lace gloves to her little black pumps. Batting meticulously mascaraed eyes, she welcomed us (with the "huan ying guan ling + low bow" routine again) then asked us to what floor we were heading and pushed the number for us. Then, if I'm not mistaken, she spoke to us in Japanese as we left the elevator. We reached the store exit with another set of bows, encountering still another hatted-and-gloved attendant, and hurried outside as a final chorus of polite goodbyes flowed out onto the street behind us in a gust of airconditioning and perfume.


I think this is on the seventh floor - I saw this little nurse bear and thought of my mom and all her friends at work, and instantly dove down for a picture. Isn't the teddy so lovable? And isn't "Vanicream" such a funny product name?


I said it above and I'll say it again: I have never experienced anything quite like Shin Kong Mitsukoshi, and I'm not sure that I will again. Although perhaps it's too soon to tell... Are we ready for "kelly-in-japan" next summer? :)

posted by Kelly @ 8:59 AM