Last February, a couple of friends of mine from work and I decided to go to the Big Bad Wolf Sale at the World Trade Center in Pasay City. We had heard of this sale before but have never gone to it. Since the sale also coincided with a long weekend, we decided that we could go and give it a try.
One thing that I’ve heard from a lot of people was to go at odd hours. I’ve had friends who went at 2 AM, but me and my friends decided that was too early so we opted to be there by 9 in the evening that way we could be traveling to and from the place without any traffic. We were so wrong about that!
Traffic was super heavy on the roads leading to World Trade and when we got there, the place was packed like crazy. A friend of mine who had also been there advised me to make sure that one of us got in line as soon as we got in because the payment lines were extra-long. My friend said that by the time we all managed to go around the place, pick out books, and traded places in line we would still be waiting to get to the cashier. That ended up being true.
A little-known fact about me (well, not little known anymore now that I’m writing about it) is that I don’t do well with crowds, especially unorganized ones. This is something that gives me a lot of anxiety and sometimes gives me panic attacks. I hardly talk about it and it’s not something I’d care to admit since I sometimes can’t avoid them for work. If you see me at an occasion where a big crowd is involved and then realize that I’ve walked out, it’s usually because I’m running out to a less crowded spot to breathe.
But I digress. Big Bad Wolf was crowded, and I panicked to the point where I did not get to pick out as many books as I would have wanted. I didn’t browse much, I just picked off books that were in view that I was interested in as I passed them.
As expected, the line we were in crawled around the entire venue. The frustrating part was when we were already headed to the area where the cashiers were, someone went to our line to tell us we were in the wrong place. We were told that we made up our line. Naturally, people started complaining because we were just following one of their guides who had a sign up regarding where to fall in line. No one wanted to move because we had already circled the area at that point.
After a while, a woman with a Singaporean accent went to our line and told us that we were not in the right line. People still refused to start over (I knew I didn’t want to either) so she decided to move us into another line not far from where we already were. She was very rude about it, but I didn’t have the strength to say anything at that point since I was so tired from waiting in line and was close to being stressed out with the crowd. I actually had to take a breather in the almost empty restroom just so I could stop panicking. As much as I wanted to get out and leave, we were already too far into it to just leave the books and quit.
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| My BBW Haul |
Eventually, we got to pay and leave the venue at 2 AM. I dropped to bed as soon as I got home and my muscles were sore the next day when I woke up. I love books and I love the opportunity to buy them at a discount, but after my experience with Big Bad Wolf, I think that I will stick to eBooks and buying paperbacks at regular prices.
Never again. It just wasn't worth the trouble for me.
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