Anya Hindmarch’s Universal Bag is now available on our shores, unexpectedly, at Fairprice Finest

The Anya Hindmarch Universal Bag for Hong Kong. Photo: Chin Boh Kay

Fairprice has announced that the popular Anya Hindmarch ‘Universal Bag’ will be available in Singapore at the chain’s Finest stores from today. First launched last year with British supermarkets, such as Tesco and Waitrose, and even the more atas Selfridges Food Hall, the “100% recycled and 100% recyclable” Universal Bag was eventually available as collabs with other supermarkets outside Britain. In Asia, we have seen the Universal Bag two months ago in Hong Kong’s Fusion and (rather swanky) City Super stores.

But as it turned out, the limited-issue bags did not really capture the hearts of their shoppers and they are now marked down, at least at City Super for their members, by 20 per cent. It could be due to the original asking price—a somewhat prohibitive HK$130 (or about S$22.40), despite what Anya Hindmarch calls “affordable price point”. We saw a woman look at the bags hung on a rack and walk away from them quickly. With curiosity gripping us, we asked her if she did not like them, and she replied, in Cantonese, “I do, but I won’t pay that price for a bag to bring to the gaisi (街市 or, literally, street market). Even if it could mean using less plastic bags? “I have other reusable bags,” she said, unconvinced.

“I won’t pay that price for a bag to bring to the gaisi (街市 or, literally, street market)”

Fairprice has set the Universal Bag for S$22, which is not significantly different from the price elsewhere in the region. It was not known if they would be considered too pricey for their price-conscious customers. Or, would the cost of acquiring one be considered peanuts compared to that of the Dior Book tote that some use for their groceries? But, when we went to a Finest store near us this morning, the Universal Bag was nowhere to be seen. When we asked a staffer, she said, with a big satisfied smile, “sold out!” When, we wondered in disbelief? “Not long after we opened!”

Finest has the bag only in navy. The other supermarket that is also in collaboration with Anya Hindmarch is Little Farms. They get the green, which is not dissimilar to the City Super version. We especially like the khaki of the Seiko Ishi chain in Japan, but unfortunately, that colour is only available there. The Universal Bag also involves a bag manufacturer that adopts environmental-friendly practices. In Hong Kong, that is the Nan Fung Group, while here, it is the Solent Group. The capacious tote is admittedly quite a handsome bag. There is a cute smiley-face, punctuated with a pair of eyes looking askance, in the centre-front of the bag and discrete branding at the top.

The Anya Hindmarch Universal Bag is available in two colours at Hong Kong’s City Super. Photo: K S Yeung

But we were not sure, when we learned that Fairprice gets to pair with Anya Hindmarch (rather than, say, Cold Storage), that the bags will sway the regular Fairprice goer, even if it is available in the more upmarket Finest. The pairing is, in fact, a tad surprising, ironic. Some time back, Fairprice dropped carrying the popular Tesco range of products. When we asked a staffer at one Fairprice store why the Tesco food stuff was no more, she told us that it was likely that the products were too expensive (but surely no more than the Waitrose merchandise available at Cold Storage) and that the supermarket could not come to an agreement in terms of wholesale pricing. In the end, they replaced the product line with another British name, Morrison. It is not certain if the Finest customer is more agreeable to sophisticated pricing of reusable bags, but with the speed at which the Universal Bag sold out, we thought, perhaps.

One accessory merchandising head remarked to us when we mentioned that the bag was gone in a flash, that, to many Singaporeans, “price is not an issue if they can be seen to be carrying something with perceived high value.” moreover, he added, “chances are, they won’t be using it as a grocery bag.” That could be true when you can buy the cheerful Don Donki ones for S$2.50 (or Fairprice’s dour own for S2.55). But in all likelihood, the FOMO individuals, quick to snap up limited-edition bags, are those who would also go queue to acquire anything issued by McDonald’s. Or, they could be those enterprising ones who saw a profit-securing opportunity in the resale market. On Vestaire Collective, one Universal Bag was priced at a ridiculous $154—US dollars.

The Anya Hindmarch Universal Bag, SGD22, is available at Fairprice Finest stores, if you can get them