The Shopwise Challenge

CEBU, Philippines - "We're going to be shopping ninjas!" I told my boyfriend as I conditioned him to an entire day's worth of scouting and hoarding at Shopwise Cebu, the newly opened hypermarket of Rustan's that is massive enough to warrant its own zipcode. While most people consider shopping as a sport, the exercise to me is equivalent to kung-fu in the 20th century where women deduce karate chops to speed-flitting from rack after rack in women's boutiques.

My friends, some media practitioners and Leandra Medine of Man Repeller have imparted all the right fashion wisdom to me over the years that I would be heavily disappointed if I came out empty-handed. Digging through a rack of clothes is far less daunting if you have a sense of what you're looking for and after I told myself I can truly emerge out of there with an overall lookbook spending just P1000, then I can conquer the world.

Oh, Shopwise did not let me down! The massive supermarket has space entirely dedicated to women's apparel, men's clothing, jewelry, bags, and shoes. It was impossible not to get confused with all these selections. I wasted no time sniffing out styles that suit summer season best: divided dresses to masculine separates and took out mini-dresses and maxi skirts until I finally decided on the best ensemble!

Here is what my loot looks like.

I couldn't help but throw in another fuchsia scarf at P175 that made me pay an extra P44 on top of my 1000-peso budget.

The entire shopping exercise was comfortably budgeted and if you want to change the entire outfit altogether, you might probably be lucky and get yourself a pair of espadrille wedges (which by the way is less than P1000). Bagging a bargain at an overwhelming gargantuan space that is Shopwise requires strategy, the best pair of running shoes and martial art shopping moves even Mr. Miyagi would approve.

Shopwise Iocated at located along N. Bacalso Avenue, Basak San Nicolas and is open daily from 8:00 a.m. - 10 p.m.