Tuesday, June 8, 2010

What the?



When I was in Singapore I caught a bus to the Chinatown district and stumbled across what looked like a Chinese shopping mall that very little done in renovations since the 1970's. It was shop after shop of poor quality shoes, travel agents that will sell you a ticket on a train to anywhere so long as you don't mind sharing with a live chicken and a few other suspect outlets that looked like they had to close in a hurry. One stall holder amused me greatly because she had the courage to set up her stall right in the middle of the mall. She was offering to remove moles. Yes, that's right, she was waving some rusty implement in the air spruiking for customers to come and have their moles removed. I politely declined as I failed to select the Gangrene Extras cover on my insurance. Who would have thought to combine medical procedures whilst shoe shopping. Apparently our State Government and a major city department store thought this was just the ticket. Whilst not happy with plain old mole removal, they've decided to install a breast examination booth smack bang in the middle of a department store. Gee, I don't know about you but I always forget to put that on my shopping list, handcream, mascara, mammogram, moisturizer. Now why should this sit so uneasily with me? Because I know that the items in any department store are there not because they care about me, but because the department store wants to make money. And so do medical franchises even when it's a 'free' service, someone is getting paid. I don't want health check booths to block up the perfume aisles any more than a man would want a prostate screening booth in front of the Foxtel in the local pub. So with the upcoming sale season will I expect to find 20% off or a scan one get one free offer? I suspect not. Take your boob bashing booth and bugger off, I'm here to shop.

4 comments:

  1. I hate mammograms. They're so uncomfortable (read painful), that I voluntarily skipped my last appointment.

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  2. I'd just feel self conscious 'dropping in' whilst checking out the latest lippy colour. Then the friggin boob bus parked outside David Jones at Castle Towers sticks out like a sore thumb and begs to be patronised by the over 50's! Not giving my age away in full public, I'll tell you that for free.

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  3. I don't know. Dentists in the cinema? Vasectomies in Maternity Ward waiting rooms? That could work.

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  4. Welcome back Man at the Pub. Nice to have you back on the program.

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