Yesterday was quite the experience for me in all of my years of shopping at Glorietta.  Can I just say though:  it’s SOOOO different from the Glorietta area that I grew up with; but I’m not complaining.  We change with the times.  Okay I digress.

Anyway!  The #SoMoms were invited once more by Mench and Letty of Ayala Malls to get a sneak peek at Glorietta’s Back-to-School Midnight Madness Sale (happening this May 31 – June 2).  It’s perfect timing:  Sam is outgrowing most of her clothes and shoes from last school year.  Not only that, she’s also developing her own sense of style and taste and won’t just wear anything I buy for her anymore.  I was glad for the “preview” so at least when I take her shopping, I already know which items she can choose from.

The fun part about it was:  it wasn’t your usual “come, see and buy” type of event.  They turned it into a shopping spree race!  Each team was asked to develop a back-to-school concept for Moms and kids while finding the cool deals that the Glorietta merchants had to offer.  The winning team as judged by the Ayala Malls management, would even win a prize!

Now let’s be honest:  we all know how competitive moms can be, even when it comes to the fun stuff. 😉  And it involves shopping.  What could be a better motivation than that?

My partner for the day was Kris of OCMominManila.  We’re pretty used to working together that we just dove straight into the challenge and tackled it like we normally do our projects.  We brainstormed together on the concept and the idea (while walking around the mall in a frenzy — it was good exercise I will admit), verified it against our own experiences as the target market mothers, and then searched for the matching items that would fit the objectives at hand.  It sounds very nerdy I know, but we have fun doing it this way!  And also, we occasionally shop together and can come to an agreement fairly quickly (especially if we’re under time pressure!  We make it work!).

Because we were multitasking to the highest levels (A part of the challenge was to Tweet or Instagram our finds, and list down all our options including the sale prices or discounts we could get), we occasionally got lost.  And so the resourceful people that we were, we stopped a janitor in his tracks and convinced him to share his guide key with us as we searched for the shops we wanted to visit.

Of course in a span of 60-minutes, we were bound to run into our “friendly competitors”.  As such, we used our detaining tactics as best as we could;)

In the end we came up with a “back-to-school, back-to-extra curricular” concept where we found clothes, shoes and accessories for Mom and child as they go through the different activities and events of the school year.  Our girls will both be in uniforms, so we needed something that could spice up their school extra-curricular events; a very integral part of a child’s school year.  We even tried to add in a color story that we thought was versatile enough to last the seasons:  blue (and white!).

It turned out that our last stop, Mayoral, a leading brand for children’s wear in Spain, released its back-to-school season collection recently with blue as its color story too!  I’d never been inside that shop until the race, and I’m glad we took a look.  They have so many cute things, and the clothes are sturdy and comfortable.  They, along with a lot of other shops have some pretty good deals that will be available to the public starting Friday.  Gingersnaps, Big and Small, and Basics for Kids for instance will have a range of items at a 50% discount!  Pinkbox accessories has a wall of clips that will be on discount, as well as some bundles of headbands that are already at great prices.  Kamiseta and Gap said that they will be putting out some good items on sale.  I need to get a list together before Friday comes around so I know what to shop for (or not, heehee!).

I’m not very good at searching at digging through sale items for prized finds.  It’s not my strong suit; but today’s run was good practice for me in preparation for Friday.  Kids’ school needs can pile up on you; you’d want to make every penny count (Side note:  Incidentally I thought of my sister-in-law who is GREAT at shopping and finding really good deals.  Her talent would have come in handy today!).  

But more than that, I don’t think I’ve ever had such fun running around a mall and shopping at the same time.  And it’s always an extra bonus when I get to do it with friends who are just as game, and just as excited as me.  After all, shopping was never meant to be done alone. 😉

  Thank you Glorietta for this exhiliarating experience.  And congratulations to the SoMoms’ winning team, Patty of Non-stop Babble and Marc of Fatherland!