the hard sell, hong kong style

If Lord Sugar is still looking for ideas to use in the next season of The Apprentice, then he should certainly consider sending the candidates to Hong Kong.  The task?  To go up to people in the street and sell them stuff.  What kind of stuff? Anything.

In a ten minute walk today in Kowloon, I was offered the chance to buy watches, shirts, suits, handbags (yes, I know) and apartments.  Most of these salesmen can be dismissed with a polite "no", but the suit salesmen can take a little more work to get rid of, as they will often follow you down the street- desperate to show you their shop. 


Worst of all, are the property salesmen.  These people literally work in packs.  Around twenty or thirty of them will stand outside a building - armed with nothing more than a folded leaflet and an iPad, ready to pounce on the unsuspecting traveller from Croydon. 

to get to my lunch today, I had to get thru this pack

I made the mistake of walking into a shopping mall that had been occupied by these dodgy property dudes.  One guy, (barely old enough to have seen Harry Potter unaccompanied, let alone have left school) tried to sell me an apartment, I politely declined.  He then followed me up an escalator, persisting with his sales patter.  When he finally gave up all hope of selling me a half million pound apartment, on a Saturday afternoon- I breathed a sigh of relief, only to have another of his kindergarten estate agent buddies set upon me for a further bout of hardcore selling-Hong Kong style.