MMS=Malaysian Mega Sale?

So the Sales are back.

Question: did they ever leave? If I recall correctly, there seemed to be a sale every single month since September last year. In various guises: Raya Sales, Christmas Sales, New Year Sales, Chinese New Year Sales, etc. So does the prefix 'Mega' imply that things will be really, really cheap? Or just another one of those gimmicks Malaysian retailers are so fond of?

But fair enough, off with the cynicism. And in with reality. Can we really afford to be splurging when times are rocky, at best? Yes, I refer to the economy, for those slowly crawling out of their comfortable moss-covered rocks. The Great Economic Slump which has hit almost every country, except Malaysia, if the media is to be believed. I think one can always gauge how bad times are by the paranoia displayed by the average executive. When people are hesitant to even take a valid MC for swine flu (or whatever the gov calls it), you know employers are wielding the axe handily. As The Verve put it so bitterly, "we're a slave to the money, then we die."

Back to the Sales. It appears Mastercard is waxing lyrical about 'generosity without splurging' or something closely related. Yeah, right. Let's see how 'generous' the banks are when they start hounding credit card users for late payments and overdue accounts. Even more incredulous is some banks offering Personal Loans for the shopping season. WTF???

So yeah, despite all the doom and gloom about the threat of a global economic holocaust (softened by the wool that's the AH1N1 outbreak), it's good to know that retail therapy is still being prescribed heartily. Disregard the fact that it is this very therapy which led us all to a mess which even the messianic Obama can't seem to untangle.

But enough of common sense. I'm already eyeing the clothes at Marks & Sparks (wink wink).