Bangkok Sourcing Trip 2013

Sometime during the holidays this academic year, I was given the opportunity to go on a 9-days sourcing trip to Bangkok. The objective of the trip was to learn more about buying, working as a group and later to work on advertising the products that I bought.

SPeLL Bangkok Trip 2013 Team

I was asked to write a brief reflection of my trip for the school newsletter I write for. This is a rather informal piece and I wrote this totally out of memory. I prepared two fairly different drafts covering this same event and later submitted the 'safer' article to the newsletter and kept this as a personal recount of my experience there. I admit that I did round this particular article off a little in a bid to make it less standoffish so I apologize for any inconsistencies in my words.

I hope you enjoy this brief recount of my experience in Bangkok.

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Prior the trip itself, I have to admit that I was fairly uncertain about the whole thing. Despite going for multiple interviews and conducting my own research to prep for the trip, I'd never considered myself as somebody especially fashion-savvy or up-to-date with the latest styles. A prime anxiety inducing factor for me was the fact that only 5 other students besides myself were selected for this trip, a stark contrast with the 50+ (give or take) strong Korea sourcing team that I knew was to set off a few months from now. I wondered if we'd be able to get everything done right.

When the time eventually came to set off for our 9 days sourcing trip, anxiety and uncertainty was thankfully replaced by excitement and enthusiasm. A thought constantly highlighted in my mind was the fact that this wasn't going to be what I was used to - this was going to be a trip to learn. I'd only been on only one other kind of school overseas trip - choir trips, basically - but this one would probably require actual hand-to-hand work. I was buzzed, but, as mentioned before, more than a little uncertain.

At the Airport.

The team comprised of myself, Kian Hong, Bernice, Hsin Ning, Sarah, Sam and Miss Raine, our supervising teacher. Sally, a senior close to Miss Raine, and her friend would fly in to join us later. All of us (from my year) knew each other pretty well already, considering we'd been in the same lecture hall for about a year. I anticipated certain conflicts amongst the team because of our various expected contrasting styles and attitudes amongst the members. Still, I remained absolutely certain that we'd work through it all somehow, and we did.

Honestly, the days went by like a blur for me. We would meet at the lobby at 9am for a good breakfast, our only free meal of the day. We were residing at Novotel Platinum which is honestly the only hotel worth staying at in Bangkok (in my opinion. I'll elaborate later). Since we rarely had time later in the day for such luxuries, Sam, KH and I woke up much earlier for a couple of days to hit the Infinity Pool before heading to breakfast. The only downside to this was that the pool only opened at 8, so we could only squeeze in only about a half hour of swim time before we had to get ready to head down. The girls joined us there only on the last morning of our trip.

The day we touched down in Bangkok (our first day, basically) was definitely an experience I'd never forget. We'd reached Bangkok way too late to do any sourcing since the shops usually closed pretty early that time of the year. 

Platinum Fashion Mall - Novotel Platinum

Novotel Platinum is situated right smack in the middle of the premium shopping district, with Platinum (Pratunam) Mall placed literally at our feet i.e. below our hotel. CentralWorld is a five-to-ten minutes walk from our hotel (depending on the human traffic) with the Big C supermarket situated directly opposite that. We stopped by CentralWorld and made our way to MBK to get SIM cards on the first night of the trip. MBK is considerably further away from us as compared to CentralWorld.

We trudged past Siam Paragon and Siam Discovery to get to MBK, although to put it honestly my SIM card turned out to be a total bust. It broke down on the day we got it. But still, it was definitely an experience making my way there because it allowed me to see a lot more of the area than I would be able to in the subsequent days.

We stopped by Big C supermarket on our way back because Miss R wanted us to get some necessities for ourselves (meaning cup noodles and can drinks). This turned out to be our saving grace in days to come because funds began to run tight towards the end of our trip. 

Unfortunately, getting our stuff at this supermarket that day happened to be the first unpleasantly 
memorable experience of this trip.

Stretch of shopping malls near our hotel

We were told to spread out in our pairs and to get our shopping done quickly. When we arrived at the cashier, only 4 of us were present (by chance) while the other 2 of them, Bernice and Hsin Ning, were still browsing nearby. We were then reprimanded for not watching out for each and every one of the members. Things quickly became confusing when Miss R then left us at the supermarket and stormed back to the hotel without a second word. At a complete loss of what to do, the girls quickly paid for their items and we hurried off in the direction she had taken.
The situation would not have been so dire if we'd known the area as well as we do now, but that was the first night we has touched down and everything still seemed new and strange to us. To make matters worse, the rain was so thick you could hardly see ten metres ahead of you and we hadn't exactly mastered how to navigate our way through completely unmanaged traffic yet. We took a chance and thankfully caught the silhouette of Miss Raine hurrying her way back to our hotel.
All's well that ends well, I suppose. Fortunately.

Bangkok Traffic

Dashing after her on that stormy night across the busy road leading into the car park in CentralWorld was definitely an experience I will never forget. I had never felt more terrified, confused and bewildered in my life. It turned out to be a harsh insight into the consequences that we would face if we messed up throughout this trip. I understand that reprimanding could have been necessary, but it still remains my personal opinion that things could have been handled better (and safer). But no use crying over spoilt milk.

The buying process itself was long but rewarding. A lot of things could be said, but at the end of the day, the budget assigned to us was always used up and the recording was always done to the best of our ability. Miss R said that we messed up on the recording on the first night of the trip, but fortunately for all of us we cleared that up soon enough.

During the first few days of sourcing, we moved as a group with one of us acting as a recorder whose sole job was taking down the items and stores we visited systematically. This person was accompanied by the recorder's assistant with the
other four acting as buyers closely supervised by Miss Raine.

Miss R would help with the buying and would correct us when she thought we were buying clothes more suited to our tastes rather than that of our target customers. We never went too far from the hotel, spare shopping at JJ weekend market which was about a forty-minutes drive from where we were.

Before Sourcing - Hotel Ground Floor

Basically, sourcing started at about 10.30 and lasted until dinner time. However, we did wake up at 6 on more than one occasion to visit the morning market near to Shibuya Mall to get shopping done before our day began.
We sourced as a group initially but would later split up into our pairs to get work done. This proved to be a lot more effective and time-efficient. Be it in pairs or as a whole group, we would point out pieces of clothing and decide together if it fit our target customers or not. We would then try to get a discount on the products and eventually buy enough to be brought back to Singapore. Recording would be done in person at the time of the purchase itself. We would get the name cards of every store we bought from and this, along with our own notes and workings, would all be entered into our computer system at the end of the day.

Quite honestly, we would face more than a handful of problems throughout our days in Bangkok. However, I am glad to say that we faced each and every one of them as a group and never lost our team morale even if we were put down or faced any conflict.

An incident that affected all of us was a single trip to JJ market that ended rather disastrously. 

Chatuchak Market (JJ Market)

Products at JJ Market are considerably cheaper than the products at Pratunam. However, it would take us about forty minutes to get there (and another forty to get back) and so we would wake up earlier to get there. This was especially important because JJ Market was only open on weekends and so opportunities to shop there were few and in-between.

On one occasion, we'd been sourcing there for just about an hour and a half when Miss R told us that we could go get a cold drink from a store we'd passed and enjoy a small break. Two members of the group were quick to lead the way back to the refreshment store we had passed earlier on. However, we were then reprimanded for having walked straight back to the drinks store instead of choosing to continue to source instead. As such, barely two hours had passed since we'd got up early to head there before we were put into cabs and sent back to the hotel from JJ market. It was extremely disappointing because we still had a large portion of the sourcing incomplete. This was a colossal waste of time in my personal opinion but I am sure that we deserved it for our unreasonable behavior.

Asiatique

Nevertheless, the time we spent in Bangkok was also filled with laughter and new experiences. We usually had the nights to ourselves because we usually finished the sourcing assigned to us by then and most of the shops would have closed anyway. Miss Raine treated us to some really good chicken rice and mango/durian sticky rice on one of the nights out. The shop was really just opposite our hotel but the food was good. She had also treated us to a warm desert with ice cream on one of the nights and brought us to Asiatique on the later days of our trip. These were
really memorable experiences for me.

Miss Raine was also there for me when something unnatural hit. This might raise some skepticism amongst readers (you can skip this part if you want), but my roommate, Sarah, and I lived through our very own spooky incident of our own during our stay in Bangkok.
Sarah had spent the last few days trying to convince me that there was something off with the room. Knocking and voices were among the few things she remained insistent about. As a skeptic (and trying very hard to remain one), I brushed her words off and took no heed of them until I was taking a bath on the fourth or fifth day of the trip. I usually spent about half an hour after my bath loitering in the toilet - with the door open, of course (as you can see, I wasn't a total skeptic).

"Supernatural"

It really happened in slow-motion in my mind - a white mist I hadn't noticed before, hovering behind my head. I had been looking downwards and I immediately felt a chill as I looked at it, my heart catching in my throat as every muscle locked down immediately and refused to move. I stared at it, one, two.. And then slowly, slowly, it gently lifted and disappeared into the wall leading into the cubicle. This is where I ran out onto our bed (we'd had singles before but had quickly turned them into a double) and got Sarah to wake up. I tried to attest the experience to my imagination and get back to sleep quickly when suddenly, all at once, both the lights and the aircon switched off by itself. Here's where we panicked, and it wasn't three minutes before Miss Raine and Sally were down in our room, awake and extremely professional.

They let us stay in their room that night. Miss Raine even had her rosary out. I still remain grateful to them and am really glad that both of them had been there to help us out that night. It was a chilling encounter that I still have trouble believing myself to this day. And if you're still curious, we managed to get a different room the very next morning.

Train Ride

The times and memories I created in Bangkok are precious to me. Even the scoldings we needed, or the work or the heat - everything was bearable and a part of the experience. Miss Raine had told us that she would leave SP soon for work in TP. If this turns out to be the case, it should be said that SP is indeed losing a good teacher and a good friend.


Credits: Vimeo.com, Google Images, mithunonthenet.com