My local mall which used to be a large, pleasant place to visit, with several high end stores, and quite a few restaurants. During the past year or so, I've wondered how these stores sustain themselves. The mall is not as crowed as it used to be, nor as crowded as other malls. And I've speculated that a good number of the goods don't get sold and that some stores must be functioning at a loss.
Just this week, this speculation was proven right.
I went into The Bay, a major Canadian department store which is (still) in the mall, to redeem a gift card I got for my recent birthday. I already knew what I was going to get: A Nine West dual-colored handbag, in burgundy, chocolate brown, and the sides in black.
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I opted for a sturdy handbag from Nine West.The bag was in a pile of sale items in a box. It was reduced from $125 to $56, close to a 50% reduction.
I had seen this bag before, and was even ready to get it at its $125 price a couple of months ago. But I decided against it (after asking the saleswoman to put it on layaway for a couple of days - until I thought more about it).
The only way I buy expensive items from The Bay is when they have their end of season clearance sales, when items are reduced by 50% or more. The last item I purchased was a winter's coat, down by 75%, during one of the seasonal sales.
I think this is the way the store gets rid of its "out of season" or "discontinued" stock, in order to leave room for new items.
The Nine West handbag looks like it is discontinued. It is very hard to find online (Vividly Frame by Nine West). That must be the reason for its large reduction. It was just taking up room.
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I stood behind a couple waiting my turn to buy the bag. I thought it would be a quick and easy transaction. But, I waited, and waited, and realized I wasn't getting anywhere. Then I started to pay attention to what was going on.
The couple was an Indian husband and wife. They talked to each other in one of the Indian languages, and their English was not fluent, and was heavily accented. The wife was there to buy a handbag from the relatively expensive handbags brand Coach (the cheapest handbags start around $100), and this woman looked like she wanted something for around $300.
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I asked the woman at the cashier if she could just quickly take care of my purchase, since the couple looked undecided. She asked me to wait. I walked around looking for another cashier, but couldn't find any, so I came back and asked her if she could take care of my purchase since the couple was still not ready. She asked me to wait, again. Then, I asked her if she could call for assistance, but apparently she couldn't do that either, although at this point I didn't believe her.
I started to pay attention to what the problem was with the two customers.
The couple was trying to use a credit card/cash combination to buy the handbag. They had two credit cards, one the woman carried, the other belonging to the man. The woman's card was rejected. They asked the woman at the cashier to check on it, since they thought it should have cleared. This took about five-seven minutes for the cashier to tell them that the card was rejected due to insufficient funds. The answer seemed to satisfy the couple.
Before they bought the bag, the ignorant cashier asked them if they would like to apply for a Bay credit card. This would give them some percentage off their goods at the time of the application, as well as other benefits once they receive the card (which apparently takes some weeks before it is issued, I think due to credit checks). Of course they said yes. The cashier then gave them a long form to fill out, which they did. Then the cashier asked them for two pieces of ID, one with a photo. Neither had such an ID. So their application form was thrown out.
This took another ten minutes or so.
The woman was clutching dollar bills in her hand, and this together with the husband's credit card went toward the purchase.
Since the section was a "designer" section, the cashier then went through the long process of finding the right Coach box, which she had to assemble, with tissue paper to cover this expensive bag. Once the bag was covered and in the box, she then started to put tape around the edges of the box, and to look for a smart, Bay, paper bag that would fit the box.
Another five minutes passed.
It took a good twenty to twenty five minutes before the woman took my bag and the gift card. I waited that long because I was already in the store, and had no intention of coming back. By then I had decided to be as pleasant as possible until I had my purchase was safely in my hands, which took about five minutes (or less).
Then I looked at her name tag, and simply said "_______, I am going to report you to the head office." She wasn't some young, flighty store attendant, but a mature middle-aged woman, who should have a better handle of the customers. She looked (and sounded) Middle Eastern to me, once again with accented English, with many grammatical errors. She was dumbstruck when I told her of my intentions (she understood what I said; she just didn't know how to react). I just walked away.
My thoughts, after I having assessed the situation, are:
- Why is this Indian woman buying a $300+ handbag, when she clearly was uncertain about her finances?
- All this talk about immigrants saving the Canadian economy through their hard work and enterprising ways is clearly showing itself to be false. How can this couple, with their lack of English, and lack of ability to work out their finances, going to be the kind of people to help the Canadian economy, let alone its culture?
-There was a time when assimilation of immigrants, even non-Western immigrants, seemed possible to me. Now I think it will not happen. The latest influx of immigrants seem deficient in language, experience and ability, while the more established non-Western ones have no interest in integrating with the white, British culture that has been Canada's identity for centuries.
- Studies show that all immigrants who came into Canada in the past twenty years or so haven't improved economically, and some are actually worse off than when they came to Canada. How can these people "help" Canada?
- All non-Western immigrants are changing Canada, slowly but surely, making it bereft of culture and wealth. How will white Canadians react to this, after they realize that it is their hard work and that is fueling the immigrant economy?
- Finally, I'm pretty sure that we will come to some kind of collision, either violent (we already see that with "random acts of violence" committed by immigrant youth in more affluent sections of the country, and the subsequent increased police presence all over the city), or more stringent economical and cultural "laws" which will attempt to deflate the power that has so far been given to immigrants through multiculturalism.
This Indian couple is a symbol of what we can expect, and what is to come.