To be honest, I had five things left on my baby list before the baby shower question cropped up from my last post.
I’d decided beforehand to get only the minimum basics and add things as I needed them, plus I couldn’t decide what was a gimmick and what was a necessity in this over-saturated market targeted at kids. I mean, did I really need that towel with the embroidered giraffe just for babies? Or could I get by with a *gasp* normal, everyday towel? (You bad mother, you!)
When the organisers for my baby shower asked for a gift list, I had to turn to my good old friend ‘Google’ to come up with a list with more than five items. Many were things I’d decided to get down the track. Others were a luxury or I was surprised I even needed (Waist-slimming maternity belt anyone?).
While at SM Department Store, a gentleman handed me a flyer for their gift registry incase I was “having a baby shower.” I knew places like Mothercare and Rustans had gift registries, but not SM.
I forwarded a picture of the flyer to one of the organisers and asked her if she wanted me to register since guests received a discount (who doesn’t love a discount?). It turned out they were going to register for me since my original word doc list wouldn’t cut it (hey, I tried, but they insisted they didn’t want ten pillows to show up when I’d specified a plane).
I told them I’d do it instead (so I could stop twiddling my thumbs), and wow, I think they’d be glad I did with the time I saved them.
This was my first time using a department store gift registry, and also first experience of doing so in the Philippines. I registered online hoping they’d let me build my wish list from there.
The registration asked for basic information and it only took about thirty minutes for the login to become activated.
Next, I had to create the event. Unfortunately I couldn’t pick the actual event date since it was blocked out. Apparently they usually allow a one month lee-way, so my date fell too early for their system’s liking. (They can choose the earlier date if they do it in-store for you. My work-around was to pick the wrong date, since everyone knew the right one anyway).
NB: Name to appear in the guest card is the baby’s name in this case. I got a bit confused and put my own name in with my husband’s (which left the lady assisting me at SM laughing and stating it was like a wedding. Oh well, we learn, right?)
As it turned out, I had to go into the store anyway to choose the items. So I could’ve done all this in-store, with less mistakes on my part.
I also received a call from SM’s gift registry department thanking me for choosing them. Quite a pleasant surprise. I told the lady I’d drop in later with my husband so she could explain how the wish list part worked and hopefully fix my date and guest card name errors.
At the store, we went over my incorrect setup with a lot of laughs and decided just to keep it as is, since they couldn’t change the details without creating a brand new event.
The process for creating a wish list was quite archaic. I’d imagined the simplified version of walking around with a barcode scanner and just scanning barcodes. Instead, with husband and a store assistant in tow, I was to grab a trolley, literally fill it with the items I wanted, then return to the gift registry office so they could manually enter and photograph each thing.
This took forever since I had to navigate aisles of over-stimulating baby products (many of which I had no clue what they did) and the gauntlet of shop assistants pushing items in my face – none of which were on my list.
With the battle of the children’s section won, and my marriage somehow surviving my frazzled self, we pushed the overloaded trolley (with several items scrapped off my original list) into the gift registry.
An information pack, registrant card and sample of baby laundry powder awaited me, along with the promise that photos of my wish list would be available by the end of the day.
Relieved and feeling pretty excited, we headed home, leaving our trolley in the trusted hands of the gift registry department.
I logged in later and got to see exactly what the wish list would look like to my guests. They would still need to go in-store to purchase the items, but at least they got to check out the list beforehand.
Other things to note:
- Guests can shop at any SM Department store, not just your preferred branch. They just need to quote your ‘Gift Registry Number’ or ‘Celebrant Name’ at the gift registry department and staff will assist them.
- Guests can opt for delivery to your preferred address.
- Items that have been purchased off the wish list appear with the has/wants filled and the picture replaced by an SM image instead.
- Free gift wrapping is included in a wide selection of colours with a gift card attached.
expat manila 