I've been thinking of a good comeback post since I've been on hiatus from blogging for quite sometime now. I wanted to get back on the scene with a positive tone and not end coming up with an average-everyday-existentialist rant (there's gonna be a lot more chances of doing that later). So I picked one relatively apt event for this: the LG Optimus One 1-hour sale.
I got wind of the news of the LG sale late last week and went on to plan how to get in line early. This despite the fact that I was undecided until the last minute (probably because I had no actual need for a new phone). I just couldn't pass up the lure of a 50% off of a supposedly feature-packed phone. So Saturday came. I left the house.
I was there inside Megamall just around past 9am (courtesy of the gym pass). I was feeling a bit queasy going straight to the line after easily passing by hordes of sale-hopefuls, so I went around walking first to bide my time.
I decided to go to the LG Concept Store after 20 minutes or so of wandering around. Boy, was I surprised to find a queue already! Instead of my originally thought of place in the line to be somewhere between 1-10, I ended up being somewhere along 50-ish (54 to be exact). Imagine that!
And when the clock struck 10am, we assumed that the mall entrances were opened. We gathered this from the increasing number of people rushing to fall into line! The scene was reminiscent of attacking steroid-pumped agile zombies from the movies! It was unbelievable. Little did these people (including us of course) know that they'd be played around by the LG store's organizers like a dog's chew-toy; the increasing crowd was going to be unscrupulously used for marketing purposes and milked for maximum media mileage.
Carla (who came around 11) was wondering if I was really going for it. I told her, being that we were already there and that despite being still undecided on the purchase of the Optimus One, I'd still endeavor to wait in line - for three and a half hours more. And so we did. We waned the wait with curious banter. Sitting there. With uncertainty.
Every now and then we got a bit impatient and had to stretch our legs; so every opportunity we got we went near the concept store to get updates. We were fed with what I'd like to think as "canned" responses for the restless would-be buyers, as well as some responses that would make you scratch your head in befuddlement. Here are just some of what I could remember hearing:
And so we waited. Patiently and optimistic at that. Until 3pm.
At that juncture LG thanked everyone who were there. And congratulated those who made it. Only a handful were able to get the phone. And the crowd started booing. One girl (I don't know if she shouted out of dismay at what happened or was just goading the already discontented crowd) shouted an expletive. "F___ y__!"
"We are reminding everyone here to avoid saying anything that would risk the safety of our shoppers. Offenders will be escorted away by our safety officers."
The announcer repeated this line to pacify the crowd that was getting rowdier by the second. Unfortunately this fell on deaf ears as the crowd continued to voice out their displeasure.
"Boycott LG! BOYCOTT! BOYCOTT!"
Before things got plunged into further chaos, we left Cyberzone. Not quite disappointed as the others albeit not too satisfied as well.
Things could have gone better if the organizers were ORGANIZED. It seems that they didn't have much foresight as the utter lack of planning and preparation was so glaringly obvious. Either that or they lacked half-a-brain due to some botched up lobotomy. I don't know. Pick your poison.
Though we didn't end up getting an Optimus One despite our dogged efforts, I'd like to think this day wasn't as useless as most people would surmise. For the self-confessed impatient Carla, I guess those hours of waiting in the queue could be considered a milestone for her and is worthy of praise and note.
We learned. And instead of walking away empty-handed, we walked away with something infinitely better. Experience.
I got wind of the news of the LG sale late last week and went on to plan how to get in line early. This despite the fact that I was undecided until the last minute (probably because I had no actual need for a new phone). I just couldn't pass up the lure of a 50% off of a supposedly feature-packed phone. So Saturday came. I left the house.
I was there inside Megamall just around past 9am (courtesy of the gym pass). I was feeling a bit queasy going straight to the line after easily passing by hordes of sale-hopefuls, so I went around walking first to bide my time.
I decided to go to the LG Concept Store after 20 minutes or so of wandering around. Boy, was I surprised to find a queue already! Instead of my originally thought of place in the line to be somewhere between 1-10, I ended up being somewhere along 50-ish (54 to be exact). Imagine that!
And when the clock struck 10am, we assumed that the mall entrances were opened. We gathered this from the increasing number of people rushing to fall into line! The scene was reminiscent of attacking steroid-pumped agile zombies from the movies! It was unbelievable. Little did these people (including us of course) know that they'd be played around by the LG store's organizers like a dog's chew-toy; the increasing crowd was going to be unscrupulously used for marketing purposes and milked for maximum media mileage.
Carla (who came around 11) was wondering if I was really going for it. I told her, being that we were already there and that despite being still undecided on the purchase of the Optimus One, I'd still endeavor to wait in line - for three and a half hours more. And so we did. We waned the wait with curious banter. Sitting there. With uncertainty.
Every now and then we got a bit impatient and had to stretch our legs; so every opportunity we got we went near the concept store to get updates. We were fed with what I'd like to think as "canned" responses for the restless would-be buyers, as well as some responses that would make you scratch your head in befuddlement. Here are just some of what I could remember hearing:
- "May announcement po tayo..." (We have an announcement...) - We we're waiting for the rest of the announcement but apparently that was THE announcement.
- We will be cutting the line of those who we can't accommodate for the sale. We will do this before 2pm starts. - Yeah right. We left past 3pm and the lines of disappointed clients were still there.
- "Sir sandali lang po ha kanina pa po kasi ako ihing-ihi e." (Sir please wait... I have to leave now as my bladder is close to bursting.) Pitiful.
- We will be distributing stubs so that we may be able to proceed in an orderly and smooth manner. ORDERLY and SMOOTH were anything but present during those hours. Pfft.
- Please don't leave your line as we are not certain yet if we would be extending the sale beyond 3pm. Translation: WE NEED TO SHOW THE MEDIA THAT OUR SALE IS SUCCESSFUL IN DRAWING INTEREST AND THAT WE HAVE A LONGER QUEUE THAN NOKIA SO STAY PUT! Aargh!
And so we waited. Patiently and optimistic at that. Until 3pm.
At that juncture LG thanked everyone who were there. And congratulated those who made it. Only a handful were able to get the phone. And the crowd started booing. One girl (I don't know if she shouted out of dismay at what happened or was just goading the already discontented crowd) shouted an expletive. "F___ y__!"
"We are reminding everyone here to avoid saying anything that would risk the safety of our shoppers. Offenders will be escorted away by our safety officers."
The announcer repeated this line to pacify the crowd that was getting rowdier by the second. Unfortunately this fell on deaf ears as the crowd continued to voice out their displeasure.
"Boycott LG! BOYCOTT! BOYCOTT!"
Before things got plunged into further chaos, we left Cyberzone. Not quite disappointed as the others albeit not too satisfied as well.
Things could have gone better if the organizers were ORGANIZED. It seems that they didn't have much foresight as the utter lack of planning and preparation was so glaringly obvious. Either that or they lacked half-a-brain due to some botched up lobotomy. I don't know. Pick your poison.
Though we didn't end up getting an Optimus One despite our dogged efforts, I'd like to think this day wasn't as useless as most people would surmise. For the self-confessed impatient Carla, I guess those hours of waiting in the queue could be considered a milestone for her and is worthy of praise and note.
We learned. And instead of walking away empty-handed, we walked away with something infinitely better. Experience.
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