Made in China @ Melbourne

We have an “off day” after a tiring few days sight seeing from Fitzroy Garden to Sovereign Hill. We decided that today (27th Oct 2006) will be a shopping day; a day we shop for gifts for relatives and of course our own self. When we read through the brochure that we got from the airport we were interested in a place called Bridge Road at Richmond. It’s a place where a lot of wholesale shop is allocated. We were contemplating on 2 choices, city centre or Bridge Road. We are trying to avoid going to a more expensive place first. We finally decided on Bridge Road. The problem now is how to get there. Take the tram or train?

We decided to take the train. We stopped at Richmond Station. The sky is a bit dark but it did not deter our shopping spirit. We asked for direction and we were told that its less than 10 minutes walk, off we go, walk walk walk, shop shop shop and eat eat eat. Our first impression is that the surrounding building is “tested” with time. It brings out the nostalgia feel.

The direction is simple just walk straight, reach Lincoln Street (I think so cannot remember) and turn left, that will be Bridge Road. We walk, walk and walk. It’s almost half an hour. We passed by old Victorian houses and also houses with graffiti’s but no sign of wholesale shops. We asked another friendly Aussie, “Just turn left and walk until the end”, he said.

Walk and walk, we finally reached bridge road, row of row of wholesale shops, offers everywhere, 50%, 70% discount. The first shop we went in, the quality was quite ok, the design also not bad but Made in China. Are we in China? Blink Blink, we are in Melbourne, but rows of rows of shirts bearing Made in China. We were quite disappointed, we are looking for Made in Australia but it seems this is very rare. Even when we are back in the city center, we went to a lot of main departmental stores such as Myers, we still see made in china although it is designed in Australia. My overall score is one Tee Shirts that is Made in Australia and is those that have the word Australia in front…..hahahaha all the others is Made in China...scratching the head and wonder why...