Four-letter word

Don’t worry, this isn’t X-rated. This is not a discourse on the curser-in-chief or a treatise on profanity. I’m talking about the four-letter word that sets hearts – and wallets – ablaze, that gets the adrenalin pumping and the juices flowing...SALE!

Unless you have a mutant gene, everyone is programmed to love a bargain, to get giddy at the prospect of a discount, no matter how small. So when the dis- counts are up to 50 percent, well, it’s time to get serious.

The Principles of Sale are as follows: If it’s on sale, buy it, even if you don’t need it. If you need it, and it’s on sale, buy more. Those principles were in full practice at the two recent opening super sales of membership shopping superstore Landers. (Actually, it is also in effect when the other membership shopping store, S&R, goes on sale.)

Two branches opened about a month apart at opposite ends of town – the first at Daang Hari in Las Piñas and the other at Arcovia along C5 in Pasig. My friends and I traveled all the way to Las Piñas on a warm Sunday afternoon but, not being a shopper, I passed on the sales and stayed close to the food, thoroughly enjoying my hotdog. Subsequently I heard about all that I had missed – buy one/take one (B1T1) offers, huge discounts like P7 per liter off on fuel. A colleague hoarded bed linens (half price), towels (B1T1), dog food, even a huge trash bin with wheels. The discounts were so tempting many went back during the week-long sale, causing monster traffic jams in the area.

When the next branch opened closer to my neck of the woods, we went a few days before the opening to case the joint. On C5 all we saw was construction work; turns out the sprawling building – over 9,000 square meters of shopping space – was behind the mounds of earth. And it even had an equally sprawling basement parking area. On opening day I marshalled my nephew and niece to go with me, this time ready for the sale. We went aisle by aisle, looking out for the green tags (on sale!). The shopping took a lot longer because we kept bumping – sometimes literally – into friends, looking into their carts to see what goodies they had that we too should get.

The Principles of Sale kicked in. I got a set of knives that were half off, only later remembering that I still had an unused set at home. The chicken stock was a real steal at nearly half the price at my regular supermarket, so I got two dozen cans. The rest of our purchases will not be itemized anymore; let me just say that it was a very fruitful outing.

We joined my friends at Landers Central for lunch, this time burger and fries which, like the hotdog, did not disappoint. As usual, we exchanged accounts of our purchases, and when they heard about my chicken stock buy, all four of them got up, left their food and headed back into the store. Along the way they ran into a couple of other friends, and among them I think they cleaned out the shelf. If you cook, you’ll know that you can never have too much chicken stock.