How does a day start @ SM?

Yesterday, I got off from work at 9am and I had to find the nearest Mr. Quickie to have 3 keys duplicated. It’s just that after months of seemingly desperate search for roommates, my ad posts at www.olx.com finally paid off. We now have Billy Joel (yes, his parents named him that!) who moved in last night and his friend, Lance, will follow tomorrow. They are the newest addition to our apartment, which makes us now 5 in total.

So before I left my workstation, I googled “Mr. Quickie” and found a small branch at The Landmark. Well, all their branches that I’ve seen so far are small. Duh!

Anyway, that’s not the issue. It was only 9:15am and malls open at 10am! Where would I go? Fortunately, there was my co-worker Louie (we call him Bro. Louie – remember the song?) Yes, I’m talking about the song in the 80’s which I don’t actually know; I just heard it from my “older” first-generation cousins. Hah!

Louie wanted to go shopping but he had not had his breakfast so I offered to accompany him. He had never eaten dumplings before so we went to Paotsin at SM Makati Supermarket (which opens earlier than the mall proper) and enjoyed our yummy shark’s fin meal. He liked it, as far as I could tell. Paotsin should pay me a nice commission for being a great endorser.

Then, I did not realize (it never crossed my mind) that even SM conducted Flag Ceremony. Yes, inside the mall. At least, I’ve never seen one before.

Out of curiousity, Louie and I participated in the Flag Ceremony. Of course, we stood still during the National Anthem singing. I actually saw some people putting their right hands on their left chest. That’s when I thought that Filipinos are still loyal to our country. Well, not all, but others still are.

Afterwards, I thought the crowd would just dismantle or disengage, but I was wrong. The Security Team had their own ceremony, folding of the flag, oath-taking, reciting of the code and customer service pledge — which I paid attention to. That led me into thinking — if only these people could really live up to their sworn duties… if only shoppers could display the same sense of dedication to their jobs, families and friends… if only politicians could do the same… and if only this could last throughout the entire day… and the following days — then, what a wonderful world!

But then again, I woke up back to reality. It was already 10:10am, the malls have started welcoming shoppers and Louie and I went on our way to The Landmark to find the Mr. Quickie branch there. Apparently, Louie changed his mind and did not want to do any shopping anymore.

Upon entering The Landmark, I asked the guard to tell us where Mr. Quickie was. He told us to go out again and go left around the mall and presto — Mr. Quickie had just opened. It was a small outlet (as always) at the left side of The Landmark. There were 2 customers claiming their shoes so I waited for my turn. When I showed the friendly lady the 3 keys, she hurriedly brought them to the guy (is that what we call “locksmith”?) who frowningly told her to return 1 of the 3 keys. The lady said the 3rd key (which was for the main gate downstairs) could not be duplicated.

I politely asked whether they just ran out of stock or if it could not be duplicated at all. In fact, we were able to have that key duplicated at another Mr. Quickie outlet (Makati Cinema Square) several months back.

But the locksmith was loud and just interrupted us and said, “O sige, i-du-duplicate ko yan, pero walang refund pag di gumana. Sinabi nang hindi pwede eh. Pare-pareho lang lahat ng branch. Kung ano ang supply namin, pare-pareho lang kami!”

My goodness! I had a quick surge of blood pressure. What was wrong with him? I was only telling the girl that we had had that key duplicated already before. Meaning, it could be done. Well, to avoid confrontation and so as not to ruin my day, I just told the lady to duplicate the other 2 keys and I would take the 3rd one at their other branch.

Then, Louie and I went home. My heart was still pounding. But I recalled the nice scene I witnessed at SM Makati earlier that day and I put on a smile on my face again. I told myself to just ignore it and move on. When I got at my apartment, I tried the duplicates and they worked, made a couple of calls, had a 5-way call conference with my family and went to bed.

But still, that locksmith guy at Mr. Quickie was a moron, don’t you think?