We tagged along with my sister in law to the Premium Outlet.
She was looking for gifts and some pasalubong for her schoolmates in the Philippines. She is traveling towards the end of January 2017 to attend their school’s grand reunion.
I thought she was only looking to buy for 5, 6, or a dozen friends.
When I asked her, she said there are 20 of them. Nay ko ang dami.
“And you want to give all of them something?” She said yes.
There were many tourist shoppers on that Sunday. Going inside the more popular stores took a while because of the long line outside each store. Waiting in line was longer than the amount of time spent inside.
I am just guessing that a lot of people will receive a True Religion gift this Christmas.
We queued at the Coach store— she didn’t find any.
We queued at the Michael Kors store —- she didn’t find any suitable gift but they bought things for themselves.
Michael Kors girls, baka kayo madapa.
We went to Prada, Kiehls. Prada naman is out of the question. There’s nothing there that’s below $100.
This jacket I think is $800.
We bought Kiehl’s for ourselves but not to bring home as pasalubong, super bigat and expensive too.
My sister in law grabbed to make-up sets and said, “eto na lang regalo ko sa inyo”. Len said “sige, pero balutin mo muna”.
Saan pa ba kami nagpunta … Tori Burch, ay mahal din.
I requested for a time out. At my age, I get tired easily. My trips to the outlets are never complete without eating a cup of Dip n Dots ice cream.
and then to Kate Spade where the wait was even longer.
I didn’t buy a single thing. Wala naman talaga akong balak bumili. while my sister and sis in law were shopping, ako usyoso lang.
Ang mahal naman nitong leather jacket, one thousand dollars. Sabagay, ganyan talaga ang presyo ng mga good quality, soft and natural leather. I don’t have a leather jacket.
I don’t have a leather jacket. I don’t think I’ll ever have one. This would look better on young people.
I also am not fond of wearing big, elaborate custom or costume necklaces and bracelets. Hindi ako nasanay. Siguro kasi my mom dressed very simply devoid of any fancy or strambotic fashion accessory. Maybe it subconsciously rubbed on me. At saka nagagalit kasi sya talaga pag maraming sabit sa katawan. Dapat daw ang babae simple lang ang bihis. Pagdaw maganda na, hindi na kailangan kung anu-anong kulirete at borloloy. It was easy for her to say that because she was born pretty. For us majority, we need lipstick, blush on, kilay, to enhance our plain features.
My sister in law found the perfect gifts. She got very excited. There were a stack of wallets in plastic bins. I saw her holding a few wallets and several other Filipinas were also doing the same thing. They were all gathered around this two plastic bins bull of Kate Spade wallets.
“An, An, $9.99 each”. Those that heard my sister in law, also got curious, imagine, $9.99 for a Kate Spade wallet. Funny because all the women were noy-pis. Ha ha ha, halatang halata ang mga generous souls, mahilig talaga tayong Filipno magregalo at mag-uwi ng pasaluboong. Kaya naimbento ang balikbayan boxes.
I doubted very much if those wallets were $9.99 a piece. Impossible. I looked at the bin and saw a $9.99 price tag. I told my sister in law, “hindi siguro, baka yang plastic container”.
I asked a sales lady and she confirmed my hatch, $9.99 was the bin’s price which they just forgot to remove. He he he, ho ho ho, na disappoint ang mga gustong mag Santa Claus. The wallets were $89.99.
I suggested that my sister in law get something smaller, maybe half the size of the wallet. Because the bigger the leather goods, syempre the higher the manufacturing cost, the leather is bigger.
I actually found a smaller wallet for half the price. My sister in law got excited again, she started counting the number of people she wanted to give pasalubong to. Ooops mukhang dumami pa. Thirty seven plus one for the principal.
Okay na daw yun, ganda. I got her a big box. She started filling it up with 37 pieces of wallets. When she was done, I told her
“That would cost you…$_____. Are you sure you want to do that?”
She paused and looked at me.
I went on o say…. “$______. That’s a lot of money. You can already buy a lot of things for yourself. Sayang ang pera. Huwag ka ng magpasalubong”.
She dropped the wallets. I saved her a lot of money.
When we were leaving, my sister asked her if she was able to buy. Hindi raw “kasi si An, sya ang aking konsensya”
(Young people don’t know this punchline. That’s from the old commercial of Safeguard soap”.)
