Unsuccessful Saving

Source: Robert Bejil Photography on Flickr.com

It’s forty-six days before Christmas. My family has started to buy gifts for our clients. Every Christmas, we’ve always bought brandy for our clients. This year, apart from brandies, we decided to buy cocktail juice for our female (or non-drinking) clients. We have already bought boxes of brandies last month. I accompanied my mom this afternoon to buy cocktail juice. I’ve heard that it costs only Php143 in Mandarin Supermarket (Ongpin) compared to S&R and Landmark (Trinoma), which cost Php154 and Php157, respectively.

When we arrived at Mandarin Supermarket, they only have a few stocks of Welch left. Some of the bottles have their wrappers slightly torn. We asked a male staff to pick only the nicely wrapped bottles for us. A female staff was also there helping us. Just to be careful, my mom asked the staffs if the bottles cost Php143 each. The male staff inattentively glanced at the shelves and nodded. As they were placing the bottles in our pushcart, the man spoke to us in Chinese accent. He was trying to imitate the funny way some of us Chinese people speak. It was very offensive. My mom retorted, “If you continue to speak like that, people will think that you’re not educated.” We took our cart and walked away. The male stuff didn’t seem to get hurt or angry. I think he didn’t understand what my mom had just said in broken Filipino.

We didn’t leave right away. I looked around to find some snacks for my sister. Still thinking about the rude staff, I walked absentmindedly and hit my little toe into my trolley’s wheel. My nail cracked into half and bled a bit (I was wearing flip-flops). I wanted to kiss my toe but I couldn’t do that in public. My mom reprimanded me for not wearing closed shoes. I wasn’t able to buy anything for my sister. Both of us left the place feeling annoyed.

A few hours later, I was getting ready to go home. I glanced at the receipt from the supermarket earlier, a bit happy about how much we’ve saved. Php1,304. I smiled. I instinctively took out my calculator and multiplied 143 by 8 bottles. Php1,144. Wait a sec. I looked again at the receipt. It was written that each bottle costs 163! It was much more expensive than at S&R or at Landmark! I told this to my mom right away. We hurriedly went back to the supermarket to check the price.

We arrived at Mandarin for the second time. We went to the beverage aisle and double checked the price. We saw that only the price tags of another brand were posted on the shelves. I realized that we must have mistaken another brand’s price for Welch’s. We asked a staff (or supervisor?) to check its price. Php163. We headed home feeling disappointed. I really hate this feeling of buying something in a more expensive price despite our careful canvassing. Huhuhu.