IMAGINE NAJIB'S AGONY! Trials and tribulations of shopping with WOMEN!

I WOULD have died many times if I were as emotional or as impatient as Mr Tao Hsiao. On Dec 7, Tao, 38, jumped to his death from the seventh floor of a shopping centre in China when he couldn't take it anymore after five hours of walking around with his girlfriend.

Tao reportedly complained that they already had more bags than they could carry, but she insisted on entering one more shop which had a special offer on shoes. They quarrelled and he jumped over the barrier. Many men would empathise with the poor fellow as shopping with a female can be exasperating.

Fortunately, I am a bit more patient than Tao. My missus tends to take up to eight hours when we go shopping. And at times she only leaves when the shopping centre's staff are pulling down the shutters and switching off the lights.

So far, I haven't jumped... the credit card bill hasn't reached a high level. Like Tao who had demanded to go home on that tragic day, I would tell the missus that it's time to balik as my arms were aching from carrying bags, my legs weary from all that walking, and my wallet weakening.

It is tiring... the husbandly duty of taking the wife to, say, Mid Valley Megamall, and walking around with her the whole day. It's not about shop till you drop, but walk till you drop.

I was in Tao's shoes before. A few times the missus told me she was ready to go home, but as we walked past a shop with a "50 per cent discount" banner, she detoured into the place. Now, I dread seeing discount signs when the day is getting late, and I am at a shopping centre with her.

A woman is always different

Women, by nature, love to shop. Whether buying or not, it's exciting for them to try out new dresses -- to undress and dress in something beautiful. And mirror, mirror on the wall.

Claiming that men are always in a hurry and never know what women want, the fair sex prefer to shop with the same sex -- that is what I have been told. For the man, shopping with a woman is no walk in the park. Say the wrong thing and he gets a dressing down.

Here is my advice. Compliment at the right time and with the fitting choice of words, even though she may not fit the dress.

And don't say "you look very nice" every time she asks you whether she looks nice in the dress that she is trying out. She gets the feeling that you are just trying to be nice to her, and not telling the truth. She thinks you just want to get it over with and go home.

It has happened before. The woman would rather ask the salesgirl for an opinion than her husband standing next to her. Somehow, they don't trust their husbands.

On Dec 7 in in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province, in east China, Tao Hsiao, 38, jumped to his death after a furious row with his girlfriend, 23, after she insisted on going into yet another clothes shop.

Anti-shopping PILL

A few years ago, some scientists came out with a pill to stifle that shopping urge in women. They claimed it could reduce the behavioural disorder by 50 per cent. In trials at Stanford University in California, the treatment helped seven out of 10 compulsive shoppers to cut down.

The pill, escitalopram, is an anti-depressant that is in the same family of drugs as prozac. It works by improving communication between brain cells, helping people to control their urges and impulses.

The treatment is based on the idea that for those with a compulsive shopping problem, their levels of serotonin in the brain are too low. Serotonin is a chemical messenger that helps to maintain appetite, sleep and sexual activity. And escitalopram boosts levels of serotonin in the brain.

However, a new study revealed that the antidepressant, which previously showed promise in treating compulsive buying, did not result in a sustained benefit for the patients.

By the way, Malaysia has three of the world's top 10 largest shopping malls, based on their gross leasable area. They are 1Utama, Mid Valley Megamall and Sunway Pyramid.

You can say that Malaysian women are ever ready to walk the whole day in local shopping centres but getting the men to do it may be a hard sell. - NST