013 | ESSAY | HUMOR | CULTURE | FAMILY
Survival Guide to New Year Shopping Madness
A deep dive into our better halves’ shopping habits
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As a husband waiting for his wife, I’ve come to accept that shopping is a never-ending battle for women. It’s a conclusion I came to after finding myself sitting on this bench in the corner of a large clothing store, waiting patiently for what seems like hours.
Actually, it’s been over two hours now, and I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve asked for an update on her progress. Each time I’m met with the same answer of “just a few more minutes,” which has been repeated about eight or nine times.
After going through a few stories on Medium, reading a few chapters of my current book, and mindlessly scrolling through Reddit, it seems like I still have some time to kill. And what better way to utilize this precious downtime than to draft a story about the shopping habits of our beloved partners?
Ah, the universal love for shopping amongst the ladies of the world. Even in our little corner of the globe, we are familiar with the excitement of Christmas shopping and Black Friday sales. However, in our culture, the Sinhala and Hindu New Year take the cake as the ultimate shopping event.
Each year, specific colors are designated based on auspicious times, although, unlike our elders, we don’t give as much weight to the color choices. But, we still use the opportunity to wear new clothes for this festive occasion.
Clothes are undoubtedly the most common and essential gift during our New Year celebrations. After receiving blessings from our elders, it’s customary to exchange gifts. And what’s the most common gift we give and receive? You guessed it, clothes!
Perhaps, you’re a high-ranking executive manager or engineer, the expectation remains the same — you have to wear at least one time, the clothes that your mother picked out for you during the New Year celebrations.
And it’s not just our immediate family that we exchange gifts with. When we visit our relatives during this time, it’s customary to bring along more gifts — and what’s the most common gift of all? You guessed it, clothes! Along with our new year's special homemade sweets, of course.
So, the New Year shopping season is a chaotic period where everyone rushes to buy clothes. To avoid the real madness, we decided to do our shopping early. However, it seems like many others have had the same idea.
Some vendors try to take advantage of the occasion to sell their unsold stock by offering them at discounted prices. For instance, you might be able to buy a Rs 2500 item for just Rs 2000 during this time. However, it’s worth noting that some of these items were actually priced at Rs 1500 for the past few months, so it’s not always the incredible deal it may seem.
Trying to explain this simple logic to my wife is about as effective as playing a harp for a group of deaf elephants. That’s why I find myself sitting here on this row of benches, surrounded by fellow husbands, patiently waiting for our wives to finish their essential shopping routines. My precious Saturday!
It doesn’t matter if you accompanied her shopping just a month ago or recently gifted her a beautiful evening dress — hypothetically, don’t give ideas to my wife. When it comes to New Year shopping, you better be prepared to buy new clothes for all of your relatives and of course, for your wife herself. It’s an unwritten rule that we all have to accept, and it’s all part of the excitement and tradition of the season.
Normally, clothes were relatively affordable in Sri Lanka, thanks to the abundance of high-quality local textile manufacturers. Some of these manufacturers solely focus on supplying to the global market, which contributes significantly to our export income.
In fact, you may not be aware that some of the major brand names, such as Victoria’s Secret, source their clothes from Sri Lanka.
Unfortunately, due to the recent economic crisis and inflation, even clothing prices have increased significantly. As a result, we had to limit our budget somewhat this year. Although the budget is still relatively generous compared to previous years — almost double, the number of items we can purchase is still limited.
The economic situation is especially hard on low-income families, who may struggle to afford even the most basic necessities, let alone new clothes for the festival. In the past, we have tried to help by purchasing a few garments for our low-income neighbors during the festival season, especially for the kids. But, this year, we had to be more selective about that front also.
So, this concludes my survival guide to the New Year Shopping Madness. The most important lesson is to be patient and prepared to wait for more than two hours on a bench. While you wait, you can use the time productively as I did by drafting this post.
Yeah!, I’ve almost finished drafting this post, but my wife is still lost in the sea of shoppers. I think it’s time for me to go find her and see if we can grab a coffee after this madness.
