Shopping for winter wear in Singapore

Hello people, having just spent three weeks in Singapore, I have had the opportunity to go shopping a lot (well it is Singapore's national hobby). I had the chance to pop into quite a few stores to look at their winter wear and I'd like to talk about my experience. I have some good things to say and some bad things to say - needless to say, I am not being sponsored by any of the shops I visited nor am I endorsed by any of them. I merely popped in as a shopper and behaved like one, so I have to be quite careful what to say about the specific shops as I don't want to get any shop assistants into trouble. Some of these shops clearly displayed the sign, "no photos" and so I had to take mental notes.

Shopping for winter wear in People's Park Complex, Singapore.

Whilst my intention is to unveil some of the bad practices by these shops selling winter wear in Singapore, the last thing I want to do is to get any single individual into trouble over this. I always believe in the principle of 'buyers beware' and that the buyer needs to take some responsibility to make sure that s/he isn't being cheated - but at the same time, shop owners should not be taking advantage of the ignorance of the shopper to convince them to buy winter clothing that they will never ever need. There is a huge difference between 10 degrees and -10 degrees and I have even asked some shop assistants for advice whilst in the shop: without fail, I was given very bad advice every single time. The default position would be, "buy all this as you will get cold" - which translates to "the more I can convince you to buy, the more you will spend in my shop". I don't know if this was the default response if they didn't know the answer or if they were instructed to do so.

So here's what I did: I went into a number of winter wear shops in Singapore posing as a shopper, I asked them all the same question. "I am going to America to study, I need some winter clothing and I really haven't got anything. Can you recommend what I need please?" Not once did the sales assistants inquire if I was going to somewhere sub-tropical like Hawaii or Florida (winter temperatures in Honolulu and Miami rarely fall below 15 degrees) or somewhere with bitterly cold winters like Chicago or Anchorage where winter temperatures can fall below -30 degrees. But no, they just assumed that oh because I am going to America, it is going to be extremely cold and started recommending that I basically must buy everything they are selling. I wonder how many Singaporean shoppers actually fall for this?

Will you be seeing snow this winter?

As explained in my previous post, it is extremely important to pack correctly - if you turn up in Florida when you have packed for Alaska or Illinois, then you're going use only a tiny fraction of the winter clothing you have bought. You will be carrying very heavy bags (with stuff you don't need at all), not to mention the fact that you've just wasted a lot of money on winter clothing that you never needed in the first place! As I persisted with the sales assistants, asking them more questions, one of them said, "some people feel the cold more than others, so if you are not sure whether or not you will feel the cold, then better to be prepared just in case lah, because you don't want to suddenly realize oh dear I still feel cold after putting everything on and not have enough winter clothing. You can also encounter cold waves, when the weather suddenly become a lot colder than normal." I would like to deal with that sales pitch.

Firstly, you will have a pretty good idea about how you experience the cold. You know your body well, so you are unlikely to get it wrong when it comes to dressing correctly as long as you have done your homework by obtaining the right information. Always listen to your body. The only reason why people would suddenly feel very cold despite wearing many layers is when they are unwell or extremely tired - this can happen during long haul travel if your body clock is so messed up and you can't get enough sleep. The remedy however, is not more winter clothing, but simply to give your body the time to rest and recover. Do not be too ambitious if you have barely had any sleep the night before, allow your body the rest it needs, make sure you get some exercise after a very long flight, do not skip meals and make sure you stay hydrated. A lot of this is just common sense really, something these shop assistants seem to lack.

Braving the cold in Croatia

Secondly, cold snaps are highly unlikely - the coldest temperature recorded in London is -16.1 degrees but on average, it barely ever dips below zero in winter, with temperatures hovering around 3 to 6 degrees. Now there's a huge difference between -16 and 6 degrees, but really you should be preparing for average conditions, not extreme conditions. And if a cold front is going to hit (however unlikely), then you will have at least a few days warning and that's enough time for you to go shopping for whatever extra winter clothing you will need when it hits. One shop assistant even referred me to this chart on the wall of the shop (which she swore justifies her 'very good advice'):

Thermal underwear at 18 degrees - are you mad?!

You can double click on the photo above to maximize it to read it even more clearly, but I couldn't believe what I saw - it recommended wearing Long Johns (thermal underwear) with a sweater and coat at temperatures up to 18 degrees. That is just unbelievably stupid. Maybe if you were a very old lady running a high fever, then yeah you would dress like that - but I wouldn't ask anyone to wear thermal underwear unless the temperature was at least below zero and I never wear it unless I am spending a very long period of several hours out in the cold. Overdressing at such temperatures will lead to a heat rash, extreme discomfort and you will end up stripping off all the excess layers you don't need and carrying it around with you like an idiot. At 15 degrees, I would wear trousers, a T-shirt and maybe a light long sleeved top and that is more than enough. My only conclusion is that this chart is to con ignorant shoppers into spending far more than they should in that shop.

I hate to say this because it is going to sound incredibly condescending, but it needs to be said: as I had my conversations with these sales assistants and asked them about everything from snow to windchill to frostbite, one thing became pretty clear. Despite working in a winter wear shop, few of them have ever actually seen snow and none of them had any significant experience with winter weather to speak of (5 days in Shanghai in October does not count dear, I'm sorry). I did some research: a typical job in retail like working as a shop assistant doesn't pay much at all. I'm sorry for stating the obvious - these jobs are highly unlikely to attract people who can go for a skiing holiday in Austria. You may be lucky enough to encounter a shop manager who is paid more and is more likely to be able to afford a proper winter holiday, but it suffices to say that you are seriously barking up the wrong tree in asking these people for advice on winter wear. You may be speaking to someone who has never ever seen snow apart from on TV. You are far better seeking advice online from people who have actually spent many winters in cold countries!

Limpeh skiing in Austria

It all sounds terribly negative so far, so let me move on to one positive point: there is quite good variety available actually and I wouldn't go as far as to say that it is cheap, but at least there is something to suit shoppers with every kind of budget. So if you just want to spend as little as possible to get the bare minimum, you can do that - or if you prefer to get something that looks nice, it wouldn't break the bank either. So if you know what you want and need, you can actually shop in Singapore and get what you want, you don't need to shop abroad. So the bottom line is this, my blog is a good place to start: read up on the issue of winter clothing here before you go shopping and never ask the shop assistants for help. Do not be lazy, spend some time doing some reading - taking the advice of the shop assistants is simply not a viable or sensible option.

So that's it from me on this issue. We're still in mid-September but autumn is upon us and winter will be here in the UK before you know it. Have you tried shopping for winter clothing in Singapore? If have any thoughts about shopping for winter clothing in Singapore, please do leave a comment below and let's talk about it. Many thanks for reading.