Uniqlo

You think chain stores are like cookies cut from the same mould, and I say yes to a certain degree — you know I’m in love with this one, but it’s only because they are SO DANG AMAZING.
So the sameness of product is obvious, but also the standard of service? That’s almost unheard of on this island. But these guys have managed to do it, so kudos to them. From the floor staff, to the changing rooms, and even the cashiers (they actually make me want to part with my money), they’ve got the attitude of genuinely wanting to help you, with of course leads to them genuinely wanting to help relieve your wallet of $, but that’s business anyway.
This store’s story was like a guilty-​pleasure-​fast-​food-​takeway. I was early (almost unheard of) to meet some friends for dinner, and was loitering outside this establishment, considering not going in. That didn’t last long, and I was browsing before I knew it. The men’s section has a certain gravitation pull that works extremely well on me, and then I’m in the changing room, with a different pair of pants on. I can’t explain it. In a minute, I’m telling this guy that I’d like them altered to this length please, and then I’m paying for not one, but two pairs of pants. This happens quite frequently, this random purchasing of pants. The pants, and the staff, are pretty convincing.
Alterations usually take 20 minutes, but then my friends came, and we popped off to the restaurant, and I’d told myself to come back for the pants… and I did, on a loo break in between my meal. My friends were thinking I was nuts to go shopping on a loo break, but even though I had to explain the pre-​dinner shopping story, the takeaway factor certainly made me fee strangely guilty — like I’d been thinking of someone else all through my dinner date…