Big Little Miss Practicality

Last Sunday, my Tita brought us to a mall in Mandaluyong to shop for shoes and clothes. Seeing I only had Php 1,500 cash in my pocket, the quest was more than improbable. This Reubenesque girth and this Amazonian height to find something in a shop for Barbie dolls with cash to throw about? Nuh-uh. Don’t think so.

Cash-strapped times such as this calls for practicality --- and good fashion sense. So what if most of my clothes are from SM? I mix and match ‘em, and there you go! My personal style. Have you ever seen that TV show on the Lifestyle Channel, Look for Less? That’s my motto. Every designer look out there has got a practical counterpart. I don’t need mucho dinero, I just need a lot of good sense.

So went to SM afterwards. Needed to buy groceries anyway, the convenience of a department store and a hypermarket is just way too useful to be ignored.

Generation All-In-One

3-in-1 coffee, pour-hot-water-and-eat noodle soup, cellphones you use as radios, computers and cameras besides… just try to deny that we are living in the fast times of the Generation All-in-One. Just try and you will fail miserably.

Much as we want to go bring back all that hippie-lovin’ and spacin’ out under the mango tree, the reality that we are living in a hyper world will still be a reality. Your boss will continually nag you about it, your mother will keep at you, even your dog will bark at you (or worse, bite you) if you forget about him in the flurry of your daily activities.

Accept it, time has become a precious commodity. No matter which way we like spending our time: frenetically at work or taking it slowly, we want to feel certain that it is time well-spent. Say for example, you wouldn’t want to go to different grocery stores so that you’d be able to get all your favorite food because that would take time and waste gas and energy. Believe me, I know.

I am not exceptionally picky, but I do have my standards. I.e., for our detergent soap, I need to buy Ariel with Downy. Other supermarkets have other kinds of Ariel (ultra, sunshine fresh, etc.) but mine is just plain with Downy. You wouldn’t believe how many times this stock runs out. For Hungarian sausages, it needs to be Treffpunkt or Royal Deli. For my facial wash, Ponds Anti-Bacterial… etc, etc.

I am sure you all have your preferences too. The dilemma now is to be able to get to your preferences the fastest and most practical way possible. The time I spend in a mall is better spent browsing in bookstores rather than hopping from one place to the next trying to find groceries. That’s why I am eternally grateful that the beefed-up Hypermarket in SM North The Block is just a 20-minute drive away. Never had a problem buying stuff there. Everything is just there --- All-in-One stop and I can spend forever at Fully Booked upstairs. Availability and variety of goods, helpful people to help you locate the proper aisles, and need I say, practical prices?

Consumer heaven, I tell ya. Makes me think that once in a while, I am so glad to be part of this generation.

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For those interested, my 1.5k was able to buy: 1 pair of sandals, a shirt and groceries for a week. Not bad, eh?

Wanna learn more? Browse: http://www.smhypermarket.com/

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