Embroidered Table Cloths

October 18, 2015 Kowloon
I spent an hour looking for that big embroidered table cloth store near Mody Road and Granville but I couldn’t find them. I gave up and decided to head back to the hotel. Maybe they moved or closed.

I took the side passage in between buildings. I saw a small store selling table linens. They have limited styles and some of the items looked like old stocks.

After a few minutes, I had an inkling that this could me the store I was looking for. I asked her where’s her father or brother. Yes, that’s them. My suki is her brother who started the business 45 years ago.

They have shrunk because of big space rental costs. Their bigger store’s rent was HK$150,000 a month and kept on rising. They stayed in that location for 40 years according to her. They could no longer afford the rent because business was no longer as great. They moved to this off the main road location and a lot smaller space for HK$20,000. When they renewed their lease, the building owner doubled the rent to HK$40,000. Amy said they’re no longer sure how they could survive with this trend.

She said only less than 20 stores are left in HK selling these kind of traditional items. Many factories in China closed. The women doing hand-embroidery have become richer because their children are working in the city and making more money. They no longer want to spend one month doing hand-embroidery for one table cloth.

Amy said very few people now use embroidered linens. Only the middle eastern and me. The young generation would not bother decorate their tables with white cloths. It’s actually hard to maintain. It’s easy to get stained and in my case, the lavandera used it as her back-up sanitary napkins.

Table napkins, HK$10 each x 12 pieces = HK$120, she said HK$100 na lang. Then when I was going to pay, she said FREE na lang.
Her gift to me daw for being a loyal customer all these years.

I paid HK$1,880 for several items including a dress. All items were hugely discounted. She was all too happy that a loyal customer found them again.

When I reached the hotel, I discovered that she forgot to pack the white blouse. I phoned her and in less than 30 minutes, she was at the lobby with my blouse. What a nice person.

October 19, 2015 12 pm
My son suggested to me that I go back to Amy and buy more items. Baka daw next time, wala na sila dun. Or maubos na yung tinda.
I felt lazy to walk several blocks from the hotel and I have locked my suitcase.

October 20, 2015 1:30 am

Before I went to bed on the night we arrived from HK, I washed the white Chinese linen blouse I bought from Amy. It smelled old baka mahawa ng amoy yung ibang clothes ko kasi talagang amoy luma na.

Amy said the original price of this blouse was more than a thousand HK dollars. I got it only for HK$380. Amoy luma nga lang. Pero after I’ve washed it, hmmm bango, amoy Irish Spring.