You'll wonder where the yellow went

[austin_dern]

Singapore stocks its stores in funny ways. You know how in the U.S. you can buy pretty much anything -- peanut butter cups, birthday cards, DVD players -- at pretty much any store -- Rite-Aid, Hannaford, Borders? They don't do it that way here. Stores actually divide into pretty sharp zones of control here. Mostly this is an ordinary retreat to the logical divisions stores had before the early 80s -- you can buy skin cream in the drug store, not in the 7-Eleven or the grocery; you can buy fresh apples in the grocery, not the drug store or the 7-Eleven -- but a few are bizarre. More than one drug store, for example, has wheelchairs for sale, but not soda. I suppose they weren't concerned about the impulse sales.

Today fortunately I needed to buy only things that came from the same store ... soap, shampoo, toothpaste, mouthwash, lemon-flavored Chapstik analogue (I highly recommend the lemon flavor, in this application), deodorant. That's convenient, although I noticed I had to make basically the same set of purchases from the same store early last month too. While I don't mind getting everything in one sweep, it does leave me feeling like I'm falling apart in synch. Since I know the cashier remembered me I can only wonder what kind of impression I give her.

Besides the lemon Chapstik, there's also apple and peach flavors. In the deodorant there's some lovely scents, including lavender, ``Mandarin Peach'' and ``Iced Tea.'' Those ``hand sanitizer'' hand drops also come in lemon, apple, strawberry, some weird and indescribably petrochemical yet appealing scent, and lavender. One's tempted to see what scents they offer for foot care and for bandages.

Nobody sells peanut butter cups, though.

Trivia: During the five-hour victory procession to Westminster following the battle of Agincourt, King Henry V was never observed to smile. Source: Shakespeare's Kings: The great plays and the history of England in the Middle Ages, 1337-1485, John Julius Norwich.

Currently Reading: Nathaniel's Nutmeg: How One Man's Courage Changed The Course of History, Giles Milton.

Comments

[oliver-otter.livejournal.com]

I can't find the honey flavored peanut butter cups in Kalifornia, just the regular ones and new white chocolate ones. And Comte de Bufon's opinions notwithstanding, this otter does like to eat honey.

I hope you can find somewhere to get peanut butter cups.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

See, I think of Comte de Bufon first of all in terms of his probabilistic method of determining the value of pi. Absolutely brilliant result of statistical mechanics, and outright creepy in its implications. It's hard to remember he did biology too.

In other taste variations, Coke (and Coke Light) with Lemon arrived last year; vanilla just showed up about a month ago. Similar story on Pepsi Twist. Dr Pepper only appears in batches imported from the U.S. for the expatriate market, and it's pretty bad by the time it gets to here.

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

Nobody sells peanut butter cups, though.

That's for the designated Speciality Foods Store planning permission. (Curiously, I don't recall there being a Selfridge's Food Hall anywhere in Singapore, nor even Whole Foods Market)

I should like to take this opportunity to support Spamhaus' proposition for the .mail TLD, being of some useful benefit to mail administrators, and in restoring some meaning to the concept of TLDs, destroyed by Network Solutions, in their wholly successful endeavour to persuade people of the synonymity of .org, .net, and .com, which had hitherto served their intent of distinguishing their domains' natures.

FWIW, the UK loosened its Sunday opening laws markedly in the 1980s, leading to the current situation of some gentle quaintness: supermarkets are not permitted more than six hours opening on a Sunday, typically 10am-4pm, with no alcohol sales after 3.55pm. Corner stores are permitted any opening hours, presumably within any local restrictions, and alcohol sales within the general hours (until 10.30pm on Sundays, 11pm other times).

Of course, whether the blossoming of the 24-hour life is a good thing or not is a matter of debate; personally, I'm for it, being of a nocturnal persuasion. (Not simply a furry thing - my brother's always been a morning sort, like my father, whilst I've always been a night sort, like my mother)

Brought to you by Tangents-R-Us, serving the scatterbrained since 1989.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Sunday shop laws are a bizarre bunch wherever they exist. I never figured out New York State's liquor laws, although I only actually bought liquor ... I think maybe once my entire time in Troy. Singapore makes things convenient; basically, everything's open just as much on Sunday as it is on Saturday or any other day.

I am a bit torn on that. One the one hand, it's great that if I feel an urgent longing to buy something at 9 p.m. on a Sunday, I can go to Borders and get something. On the other, there's great value in ``the sabbath'' -- not necessarily religious value, but of having a reserved time in which you do rest. People as a rule don't relax enough, and I think there is some social benefit to there being time you can't easily go in to work, or go shopping, or do any other purposeful activity.

Does this need to be enforced by law or conformity? Well, I don't like most anything that forces people to do stuff without their deliberate choice. But I accept the benefits of (for example) compulsory vaccination of children or of fluoridation of municipal water supplies; is a move for psychological health fundamentally different? It's harder to prove the benefit exists, much less that it's essential, but it might be better to not have everything available everywhere every time.