OBSERVATION DAY

 

The subject (Benjamin Wu) is Bang Lin’s relative. He works as an IT/System Analyst and enjoys building his own computer systems as a form of personal project. He is also an avid diver. He believes in dressing fashionably and comfortably. He was aware that he was being observed, however the observation was to be treated like a normal activity with his friend and he had no clue of the brand Bang Lin was studying.



Monday, 28th January 2013



Benjamin started his day relatively late as compared to the usual time he wakes up for work. For this observation day, we agreed to meet over lunch at Orchard. He told me he rose from bed at 10am in the morning. It is a Monday, and he was instructed by his boss to take two days leave from work because of his previous stint to work overtime during the holidays.

 

From my conversation with him, he told me that he managed to work a little on his personal project, which is putting together a system unit for his personal computer. As a system analyst and an I.T. guy, he thoroughly enjoys building his own personal system and enjoys the fruits of his labour. Afterwhich he took a shower and came out to meet me at Orchard.



We had lunch at Fish and Co and caught up about what we’ve been through the past few months and any recent developments at his work place since he just had a change of job. Later on, we went on to do a little shopping around ION Orchard. The first shop that Benjamin went to was Uniqlo since it was conveniently located from where we were. He made a remark about how it is time to buy some new clothes, especially with Chinese New Year around the corner.



At Uniqlo, he started browsing and looking through the basic T-shirts but didn’t seem very interested in them. When he saw the sale section, he went ahead to take a look and spent a significant amount of time at the section to see if he could grab something that looks aesthetically pleasing and is priced reasonably. He later went on to the shirt section and found himself a plaid shirt that he fancied. He looked for his size and decided to give it a try in the fitting room. After 5 minutes, he came out happy with the fit and the simple design and decided to purchase it.



We continued walking around, going into shops like Muji and finally arriving at Zara. I was interested to see how he would react to Zara’s fashion offerings as well as its price. He started going straight to the sale section when he entered Zara. Benjamin made a remark about how all the items on sale are too big for him. He even saw a particular design that he liked but the sales assistant told him that all sizes were placed on the rack and that the size he was looking for could have been sold out. He then went on to look through the new arrivals, but I believe the prices did not appeal to him even though he took a double take on the things that he fancied. The whole shopping experience didn’t take more than 15 minutes and we were out of the shop.



We then went on towards H&M, since Benjamin made a remark about how H&M probably offered cheaper alternatives to Zara. Likewise, when he entered the store he began browsing through the T-shirt sections, followed by the shirts and jeans. One of the trousers caught his attention, and upon closer inspection on its quality and price, he decided to try it out. He came out satisfied with the fit and went on to make purchase after browsing through the store a second round.



 

After all the shopping, we had a quick dinner at the ION dining hall and decided to call it a day. We went our separate ways and Benjamin seemed contented with his purchase.