The quest for the ultimate stroller (Part 1)!!!

While the sling's been working swell, the swing bearer has not. The boy's gotten a taste for travel too. When we're in the room, he kicks to signal that he wants up and looks to the door. It's hard NOT to succumb to the boy's wishes when he does this to you:

Compelling, isn't it?

And because of the decision to stay yaya-less, we bring him wherever we go. Needless to say, it's time we started looking for a stroller.

To be honest, baby wearing is great. You can commute via jeepney easily when you're carrying a sling around rather than a baby PLUS a stroller.

But for those times when terrain is going to be mostly pavement, and you have to lug other baggage around, a stroller sounds wonderful.

And while it IS tempting to be cheap, this is The Stroller. This item will see about 2-3 years of abuse, and probably another 2 to 3 years after.

Not that we're planning a follow up soon.

*cough*

...so began our quest for The Stroller.

Considerations:

• Must be good for all sorts of terrain (specially since the road outside the house is under repairs, and since elections are over, Malaya might be walking before the project is done).
• Must fold easily.
• Must be lightweight enough to carry around during travel.
• Must be able to hold an infant from 3 months to 3 years old.
• Must look metal. \m/ (The daddy insists)

Pretty... impractical.

So online window shopping we went.

Now it just so happens that this website, Save22.com, advertises itself as some sort of online window shopper's haven. Their tagline goes "You can research online before you go shopping offline!" That's my motto right there (not a word for word quotation, but what the hell)!

So I went to the website via mobile phone, only to automatically be led to the Metro Manila page. I know the city's market central, but could you be a little less obvious about the Manila-centrism? To add insult to injury, on the drop down section for location, when I clicked "Cebu City", the page wouldn't load. Turns out you have to type it manually. Doh.

When I did get to the Cebu section, there was nothing but promotional advertising.

I think I clicked "map view" and got this: 

...SM Cebu por favor?

I went back to the website to check out the Manila page nalang, expecting to at least find stroller prices or models available. 

uhmm...

I wasn't looking for promos, but it seems that's all this website has. As someone who does 95% of her window shopping online, I was expecting them to have a vast array of product catalogs; price lists; etc etc. 

I thought maybe their mobile site was crappy, and that I'd get better results if I was on the laptop, but...

Considering how much activity there is on the Istorya.net buy and sell forums and how popular small businesses are on Facebook, I'm surprised companies with Cebuano franchises haven't jumped on the opportunity to be seen on a website that advertises itself the way this one does. Then again, this might reflect more on how Philippine businesses in general see online advertising rather than on save22.com.

For example, SM's Baby Company doesn't even have a real catalog on their website.

I went to lazada.com.ph to check out their stroller stocks. No metal looking stuff. None on any top ten stroller lists either (grabiha ka arte sa?) and there are a lot.

I'll be one to celebrate when online shopping in the Philippines goes beyond buy and sell forums. RIP Multiply.com, I miss you now more than evar. ;_;

Meanwhile, the partner and I decided to check out the stock IRL. I figured we could just google reviews for what was available when we got home.

Most of the strollers we found in the malls were complete travel systems, with car seats included. We don't have a car. Prices range from 2000php to a whopping 35,000php.

The partner liked this:

It came in a lovely violet hue

While I liked this:

This one came in red

I checked reviews when we got home. The quinny zapp up there had a buttload of bad reviews, one review even had the warning that the stroller was too light that it tipped over with her toddler in it. Yikes.

While the Aprica Laura had good reviews, they were too few to be reliable and sounded suspiciously like a sponsored blog post. Also, there was nothing on whether it could deal with rough terrain. Maybe there's a motherlode of genuine Aprica stroller reviews in Japanese that I haven't uncovered, because it's a Japanese company.

Both were priced at 17k at SM.

Now after all that googling and comparing and nose scratching, I did end up with a realistic dream buggy:

The only issue that keeps resurfacing is how the front wheel keeps getting stuck, which the company deals with by replacing the part with another wheel. Otherwise the reviews are fantastic. It boasts a smooth ride and an easy pack up, which is exactly what we're looking for. And though it doesn't look as fancy as the quinny, I'm not very big on frills, and it looks sleek enough to be considered metal \m/.

And with the current US Dollar = Philippine Peso exchange rate, this might be cheaper than the ones we're considering from the stores, shipping included.

If we end up going this route, I might have fodder for a blog post about the Philippine postal system. Apart from a review on the actual stroller. Hehe. Stay tuned for part 2, where we actually acquire the pram.

P.S. This is the unrealistic dream buggy:

Obviously Ironhide and Chromia's lovechild. Transformer baby ftw!