I absolutely LOOOOOOOVE SM Department Store. I do! I really do! My friends will swear by it. I swear, it’s the best place to shop in the Philippines (safe answer). My favorite SM Department Store.
Since I was little, my mom and my aunts would bring me to SM Department Store to shop for school shoes, party dresses, and casual wear. Over the years my shopping has graduated from school shoes to prom/party shoes to gimmick shoes. From kiddie party dresses it improved to formal dresses – the list goes on and on. For every need (except for Supermarket – sorry Chris!!) we go to SM.
Selene, Kim and I frequent SM on our own – I think it was just in college that we realized that we went to the same place for shopping. We enjoyed it there so much!! I mean, you can LITERALLY find everything you need in one place. As the tagline of SM goes ‘We’ve got it all for you!’ – True enough, it has everything under one roof AND the prices are fairly reasonable and most of the time affordable. Whenever you’re scouting for something, you go to SM because you know and everyone knows it’s CHEAP/MURA.
A little over 6pm today, I accompanied my mom to the SM Department Store over at North Edsa (this by the way is THE best department store EVER – Megamall only comes second for me) to look for items that Sr. Ligaya asked for us to buy for them. As we entered the mall proper, we had to fall in line to get in (duh?! This has to be THE most populated SM mall), and when we got in, there were literally hoards of people walking about the mall. My mom and I headed straight to the department store proper to scout for the items needed, but as we walked in, I was stunned to see the same number of people crowding the modules and cashiers as well. I just realized a few minutes later that the department store was on sale, a late recollection of an ad I saw on yesterday’s newspaper – the sale ends today January 2, 2005. The WHOLE department store was on sale! People were literally everywhere, sales people were seen running around the place, especially on the 2nd floor as it was where ALL the shoes are located. I’m sure everyone has their own fond memory of buying shoes from SM – the process of getting your size in a style you liked would appear like this:
1) Going to the nearest sales person or the promo-diser (thanks to my Panget and Bny for the term!) to ask for your size.
2) Then, the sales person/promodiser would then grab a micro-phone, and say a series of numbers and motion you to wait by the area where you may sit to wait for your pair of shoes.
3) A few minutes later (seconds seem to be impossible), you’d hear something that sounds like something bulky had fallen on the floor, looking for where the sound came from your attention would suddenly be distracted by a salesman holding up 8-10 boxes of shoes over his shoulders, then dropping them to the floor in an instant – this is the same sound you heard – but now, nearer and louder.
4) Now, it’s claiming time! Excited to try on the pair of shoes you asked for, you’d need to wait for your turn, as the salesman would announce one by one what brand, style, and size he had just brought. I know this sounds and seems crazy, but apparently for Mr. Sy – who developed the system IT WORKED! And it still works, up until now, except of course – there’s no more microphone hanging from the ceiling – it has been replaced with AIPHONE Intercoms (courtesy of AVESCO Marketing – my Panget, I need my commission! Free Promo nay an!)
I’ve always been curious on what the stockroom for the shoe floor looks like. I mean, the people in charge of the stock room must have a sponge like brain for them to memorized a hundred or more codes and figured out which style, brand and size went where.
My Panget would ALWAYS kid me that if there comes a time where we’d cross paths with Mr. Sy, he’d come up to Mr. Sy, pull me behind him and tell Mr. Sy that I love and frequent SM Department Store. Of course, this is a long shot, but recently, it looks to be otherwise – why? Well, Mr. Sy frequents Podium on Sundays. Podium is another mall that I like – (it goes on and on..) and I frequent. So put two and two together – our paths may cross one day! My Panget would ALWAYS inform me if there’s an ongoing sale at which branch – his cue – ‘Yung favorite store mo, sale nanaman’ and with this, I’d smile and reply ‘Tara, let’s go!!’
