Confessions of a Shopaholic

Okay, so there’s this market in Phnom Penh called the Russian Market, so named because during the whole communism thing when the Russians were here, it was where the Русские went to find the things they needed. There aren’t actually any Russians here anymore, kind of a letdown, but the Russian Market is a magical place. Seriously. It’s like walking through the wardrobe: on the outside, it’s really nothing special, kind of looks like a giant shack, but then you walk inside and there’s this magical world you never knew existed. You can find anything there at a fraction of the retail value. And by anything, I mean everything you ever wanted, but resisted buying because it was too expensive. It’s really not the best place for a compulsive buyer or someone who has trouble saying no…the salespeople are super friendly and very good at what they do. 

I went to one area planning to buy a t-shirt, as in 1 t-shirt, and I ended up buying 5 t-shirts and 2 skirts...it was still only $20, but that was the moment that I realized I needed to get out of there and never go back…haha, yeah right. I also bought real orange Ray-Bans for $7, which is how much I paid for my fake ones! They also have Coach purses for $20…I’ve managed to stay away from them so far. I did buy an 80L North Face backpack for $20 and I’m pretty sure the retail value of it is around $300. Oh, AND they have every TV show you could possibly want. You can buy a boxed set of every season of a show for about $15. I bought a boxed set of 4 seasons of Star Trek Enterprise for $10. FOUR seasons for TEN DOLLARS!! It’s ridiculous! You can buy 5 seasons of the Office for $15. I spent double that on one season of the Office at home.  I also bought New Moon on DVD for $1.50…totally awesome.

Sidebar: I absolutely loved New Moon. It was a fantastic adaptation of the book and the overall quality of the film was way better than Twilight. 

The whole shopping experience at the Russian Market is kind of cool because you're expected to bargain. Although, sometimes I just pay their original asking price because it's already a great deal and I sort of feel like a tool bargaining from $6 down to $5. That dollar means very little to me, but it goes a long way here. When I do bargain, my strategy is to just look like I really want whatever it is, but then hesitate for a really long time when they say their price. They'll usually say something like, "for you sista, special price!" and they'll knock a couple bucks off. Or sometimes they'll ask, "what price is good for you?" and assuming that what you say is reasonable, they'll add a dollar to it and say, "good price for both of us!" It's really a lot of fun if you do it right.