mango mania

You'll know it's the end of a fashion season when Mango finally has its season sale. You'll know it because everyone's talking about it. And everyone is flocking to all 5 Mango stores in Metro Manila to finally score that bag or that top they've been eyeing for months.

A colleague was the one who gave me the tip yesterday-- in a frantic whisper "Uy, sale sa Mango! First day today!" . At first, I got excited. 50% off in Mango can actually get you some pretty neat stuff.

One thing made me hesitate, though... What I hate about Mango's sales are the lines. The miles and miles of people lining up, clutching 10k worth of merchandise. These notorious queues can take up a good 1-2 hours of your time, depending on what hour of the day you arrive and which branch you head to.

Worse, you'll find that a good 50% or so of these people lining up are actually men. No, no, these men don't shop at Mango. Their girlfriends/wives do. And they have the godforsaken task of queueing on their beloved's behalf, while the ladies wander off in search of more stuff to lay upon the guys' already-fully-laden arms.

Aw, poor boys. All in the name of love. Either that or takot kay komander. So, shut up and line up ka.

I often wondered what I would do if I had a boyfriend and a Mango sale was going on. Before, it was easy for me to raise an eyebrow and think these girls selfish-- expecting their boyfriends to wait through such an impossibly long line just so they can buy stuff. Granted, they may be good deals, pero mahiya naman kayo....

Seemed like I was meant to test myself yesterday. Dennis and I made plans to have dinner at Rockwell, and it happened to be the 1st day of the Mango season sale. As we were walking towards Mango, I started to wonder how I'll handle this situation. Will I end up like one of those girls I had judged in the past?

As expected, at 7pm, the sale was in full swing. The voice decibel was as high as a rock concert, with people shouting above the crowd, yelling out sizes, colors and what-have-you. I looked at the line and estimated that about 25 or so people were lined up. I looked around to see if there were stuff that would catch my eye. Predictably, there were. There was a bag I liked (at a price I liked even better), several tops and a dress that I thought would be a nice addition to my wardrobe. Dennis ran into a fratmate. I thought to myself, Good, keep chatting, so I can keep looking.

After looking around for about 10 more minutes, I started the weighing game: Do I want these things enough to make Dennis line up for about 1-2 hours? If I do, then I better tell him now, while I go and try on the dress... On one hand, we'll miss our dinner plans... On the other, c'mon, how long will this sale last pa?

Hmmm...

Hmmm...

Hmmm...

I was so torn.

Hmmm...

Hmmm...

Hmmm...

Finally, I decided, I can't make him do that. It just wasn't worth it. I knew he'd do it if I asked him to, but would it be worth it? Sometimes you gotta choose your battles.. and your favors...

So, I put everything back down and walked back towards him. He smiled and asked "O, where do I line up?" I said, "nowhere" with a smile. If I read correctly, he seemed proud of me.

So we walked out and headed to Crustasia for dinner, where we spent about an hour or so laughing and talking, recounting the day that had just passed.

In hindsight, that hour-or-so could've been spent in a queue, in a store, under garish lights, hungry and tired.. where we probably would've fought, and ill feelings would've been exchanged..... Instead, we spent those same minutes laughing and talking and bonding and having fun. Only interesting stories and loving words were exchanged.

Those clothes I saw in Mango may have been really good deals... Half-off. But skipping it proved even more worth-it. Ironically, skipping the sale was the best deal of the night. Hands-down.