Christmas shopping 2019

For the past few years, I formed this habit of shopping for Christmas in different countries, wherever I went for a conference, a training program, or for a personal vacation. Val's like that too, it turns out. For example, he bought me a pair of suede loafers in Montpellier and a silver ring in Dublin. Anyway, for this year's shopping, Val and I made an early start this year by doing our first round of gift-buying for family gifts in June and bought few pieces here and there. 

Discount Stores (Pleasant Hill and Concord)

Val and I scoured TJ Maxx, Ross, Home Goods, and Burlington for shoes, bags, and clothes. The items we got were of designer brands but because of the deep discounts, we were able to buy more things within our budget. The discounted prices in these stores stopped us from buying items in Manila or in Singapore because we had to pay full price there. For example, I had paid SGD 75 for a pair of white and pink Adidas faux leather sneakers in Singapore in 2018. In Manila, a pair of similar Adidas sneakers (probably not the exact same model as mine) may run up to USD 100 in the department stores. But when we visited the discount stores, Val found Adidas Superstar shoes priced at around USD 35, probably because these were off-season already. 

Ubud Market (Bali)

We found a merchant selling sarongs, wrap pants, and scarves with gold embroidery and batik prints. We also found coasters made of tiles created by local artisans. There were other items on offer, of course, like abaca-woven bags, wooden plates, and sculptures... but we opted out because many of them were too bulky and also available in Benin (albeit the styles of the sculptures were definitely different). We're both good at haggling as well so we were able to lower down the prices of the things we bought by 75% which allowed us to buy more items from the same merchant. She said that we were her first customers for the afternoon who bought a lot of items so she gave us a golden table runner for free as well. With so many items for sale in her store, we didn't even bother shopping elsewhere.

Broadway Plaza (Walnut Creek)

Thanksgiving weekend in the US is a major shopping weekend because of the huge discounts on offer both online and in-store. Black Friday is a particularly busy day so I opted out of going to the malls then. But Cyber Monday was less busy because people mostly did their shopping online; which is why I went to Broadway Plaza that day to buy the last of our big shopping gifts. I was able to buy items at 50–70% off or at buy-one-get-one deals. The three stores I visited were Gap (they had "doorbuster" deals), Banana Republic (everything in the racks were on discount up to 50%), J. Jill (had a clearance rack but the small items display caught my attention), and Soft Surroundings (clothes were at 30% off at the time but the salesladies brought my attention to the bedspreads, which were within my shopping budget's price range). The staff at Soft Surroundings were particularly helpful because aside from wrapping my packages, they also helped me load the boxes in the car.

Sunvalley Mall (Concord)
I was looking for baby sneakers and I learned that Carter's is in the children's section of Macy's. So I popped in to see if there's something there that I could give to Gabriel (he's just started to walk). If I didn't find shoes there, I'd go to Nordstrom Rack, which was just across the road from the mall. However, a great pair of shoes in his size was available at 60% off, so I opted to buy it already. I also dropped by David's Tea, which also had holiday sales going on. My attention was drawn to a fancy boxed set of loose tea leaves with a Christmas theme so I got one of those as well.

Val will bring half of the gifts to Benin (I wouldn't fly over this year), which is why they remain unwrapped. He'll have them gift-wrapped when he gets there. The gifts that will be given in the US have been wrapped and are ready to go under the tree at Ate Gigi's and at Biboy's.