THE most bored workers in Hong Kong today must be the shop assistants, who sit around filing their nails, humming, 'Where have all the clients gone?' Perhaps they should form a trio with the property agents and the stock sales teams.
Where have all the shoppers gone? Back to their flats, to eke out what funds are left after they have paid the mortgage, perhaps.
Or off to other cities where rents are not so exorbitant, wages so high, hotel rooms so scarce and expensive, and goods offer the same value on which Hong Kong once prided itself.
Those good old days are fading fast as the retail outlets pump up their prices in an effort to keep profits growing.
The sub-three per cent growth in some circumstances would have provoked a mega pile-it high, sell-it-cheap response. Anything to move the goods.
But in Hong Kong the law of diminishing returns seems to be suspended. There may be more SALE signs around, but they probably reflect the clearance of cold weather clothes after this unseasonably benign weather.
Instead of being slashed, prices have risen 9.2 per cent: above inflation, and a big enough rise to almost guarantee customer resistance.