With the Christmas season nearing it’s date, shoppers are flocking the stores and malls every day to complete their gift list.  Last weekend, there was a mall-wide sale in one of the malls in the city and as expected, the place was brimming with shoppers.  There was also a program held at the mall grounds to open the life-sized Barbie themed Christmas decorations outside the building, so there were also many children around.

How does one survive a situation like this?

Plan ahead.  Malls usually announce the dates of their sale weeks before it happens.  It’s better to go there a day ahead and scout what items are discounted.  You can ask the help of the salesgirls in knowing which items will be on sale.

Be early.  Sale usually starts on Friday, a working day for most people.  If you go to the mall in the morning, chances are there are only few people yet which gives you more choices and space too.

Wear comfortable clothing.  If its a mall-wide sale, you will be doing a lot of walking (probably the whole mall) so it’s better to wear comfortable clothing (no high heels unless you can strut on it for longer time without getting tired) and bottle of water to keep you on the go.

Fortunately, our store sales here in the Philippines don’t attract shoppers to line up a night before the store opening hours like the Black Friday sale in the US.  And we also don’t also rush inside once the store opens like the recent incident in Wal-mart where an employee was trampled to death.  In fact when I did my shopping last weekend, there were only few people who were actually buying even when the mall was all filled up.  I guess they just went there to cool themselves.