All consuming desires

Hong Kong is expensive. Here are some tips to help you maximise income and minimise spending

Hong Kong presents many mysteries to the everyday consumer. There is so much variance in prices and so many opportunities to make money. The goal, of course, is to maximise value and one's opportunities. But how to proceed? Here is a guide to navigating some basic, utterly practical issues many Hongkongers face, with advice from people on the inside.


How to buy a suit

As explained by tailors

By P. Ramakrishnan

Raja Daswani of Raja Fashions says people need to be clear what budget they are working with when buying a suit. "For the budget-conscious, I say go for something durable, conservative. I'd suggest buying a quality but non-branded fabric," he says.

"I'd suggest conservative because it's realistic - a suit from 1950 that's well made can be suitable now because it's timeless. But a suit made in the 1970s with its signature trend and fashionable tailoring now collects dust in cupboards."

In case there is any doubt, there is a vast difference in quality among tailored suits out there, and the tailors can clearly spot the good from the bad. After all, they have trained eyes.

"When a man is walking down the street, I can tell [the quality of a suit] by the material, how rough it is, what kind of yarn has been used, what kind of machinery," says Sam Melwani, 63, of Sam's Tailor.

Why does a suit in Shenzhen cost only a few hundred dollars? "When you pay at a noted shop, you're really paying for the artisanship. What the customer is really paying for is the superior quality of the work," Daswani says.

"A fresh graduate who is trying to make a start in the business will not have the same expertise of a cut like a man who's been doing it for 30 years. Then there's the material; fabric can cost anywhere from HK$20 to HK$2,000 per yard."

Daswani says a person should expect to pay HK$4,000 to HK$5,000 for a fine suit.

Fabric counts for a lot. It is a big component of the price, and it will go a long way to determining how comfortable a suit is, and how good it will look over the years. "Some people cannot take heavy suits, as they literally choke in the heat. It may be in fashion, but so what?" Daswani says. "If you're a banker in Hong Kong, in the heat of summer you'll really suffer if you don't make sensible choices with your fabric."

How to buy a good bottle of wine without paying the earth

As explained by wine connoisseurs

By P. Ramakrishnan


Simon Tam, head of wine for China at Christie's Auction House, says there actually are ways of buying wine on a budget.

"A lot of good wine in hotel chain-linked restaurants can be available for HK$500 to HK$700 per bottle - and that's a very good price to work on for the budget-minded." And an insider's tip would be that a lot of Chinese restaurants - not Western - don't charge for corkage, which is a great way to save money by buying retail and doing "BYOB".

When buying at a department store, how can one home in on a good bottle? "In Hong Kong, we're very lucky that something in the vicinity of HK$500 is available to us for any kind of wine, except perhaps a good Bordeaux - which is always a bit more expensive," Tam says.

"There are so many labels on display, and the truth of the matter is, for a lot of people, it's a matter of palate and appreciation. If you've spent HK$1,000 and it doesn't agree with their taste buds, then [your guests will] think it's cheap wine. I strongly suggest, in this scenario, buying a bottle of champagne. People might profess not to like it, but pop open a chilled one and everyone raises a toast. It becomes an occasion."

Picking the right bottle for the uninitiated is luck of the draw. Most people, by habit, simply look at the price to gauge its quality. "The cheaper the wine is, the more the mark-up is," says Kavita Devi Faiella, wine director of the Press Room Group. "Restaurateurs know that the cheap bottles will fly off the shelves. But owners want to move the expensive bottle, too, so they might mark it up by just a fraction."

The price of the wine can depend on whether you head to a chain restaurant or a stand-alone. Chains offer better value than independent restaurants. "Wine is priced more competitively in an independently run restaurant," Devi Faiella adds. "Global restaurants' in-house numbers are unpredictable because they buy in bulk and distribute them.

"If there's a chain run by the same management that has a restaurant here in Hong Kong [which has no tax or luxury tariff] versus in India [which has a great deal of taxation on wine and whisky], they level the prices as they're looking at the overall scale."

Can you get a great wine that's cheap? Tam says no: "If you really want the good stuff, you have to pay for it. I've taught classes on wine tasting, and the two things I promise all my students is you'll end up buying and appreciating expensive wine and you'll never go back to the cheap rubbish. If you appreciate wine, it's nice to pay for quality wines. There are no 1961 Chateau Lafites for HK$200."




Nov 21, 2011