IT’S a lovely foam bed, about two-and-a-half meters wide, four meters long and six inches thick. When I push my palm into it, it doesn’t easily yield, just perfect for my one-year-and-one-month-old daughter to practice her walking. If she misses a step and falls, she won’t get hurt.

I want to buy that bed, priced as affordably as a bottle of Johnnie Walker Green. Even better: it’s buy-one, take-one. Then again, I’m not in Divisoria, where every available space on the sidewalk is taken by the scampering of feet rushing to this bargain store and that.

I am in Novaliches, that periphery of Mega Manila where the seven-year-old, three-floor Robinsons Nova Market (formerly known as Robinsons Place Novaliches) is located. It’s my first time here, and I discover a lot of things related to space.

There’s plenty of space to park. Inside, there are lots of space to walk from one store to the next, from one floor to another and so on. Think of Robinsons Place Ermita with less people. And I mean that positively. Or maybe it’s just because it is a weekday and it’s noontime.

“Pare, para tayong nag-punta sa probinsya [It feels like we ’re in the province],” says my jolly shopmate, happy and gay editor-friend Ricky.

The positively weird feeling of having a mall surrounded by trees and lush green vegetation normally comes with a visit to that one in Tarlac, right at the entrance of Hacienda Luisita. Now, Robinsons Nova Market provides a similar experience—a mall yet to be surrounded by suffocating buildings and billboards.

Going back, I am in an air-conditioned retail outlet called Bargain Exchange, the first of its kind. Beyond the bed, I venture into the men’s section and pick up an imported blue-striped polo shirt and brown golf shorts. No, I don’t play golf; it’s just how it is called.

The lady attendant gives a queer glance when I try the women’s section, but I need to have something for my manager back home. I find an imported lovely orange medium-sized body-fitting top.

Then, for the little one who needs a bed on the floor for her to walk on, I get a terno of neon green Sponge Bob-imprinted shirt and pajamas.

Now, the dilemma: with the budget I have with me, it’s just enough for the three items (all cost a little more than P1,000), so the bed needs to be delayed. There’s always another weekend for that. Besides, I can’t carry the foam bed back to the office in Makati. Or else I’d give everyone the idea that I intend to sleep at work.

Also at Bargain Exchange, there’s a variety of choices for footwear, accessories, home embellishments, small appliances and furniture. Everything is priced much cheaper, up to 50 percent, than at other malls. And the merchandise are not—to use a common Filipino term—patakbuhin, which we have come to quickly attach to anything appended with the word “bargain.”

Bargain Exchange can only be found in Robinsons Nova Market. According to Jenny Lyn Mastrili, assistant project manager for Bargain Exchange, expansion will happen in other provincial Robinsons Malls.

On the second floor of Robinsons Nova, there’s the Fashion Lane. It is a line of 45 stores or miniboutiques for the fashion conscious with a limited budget.

“Fashionistas will find it difficult to resist this area since you can find the most colorful, the most up-to-date apparel here, with accessories, shoes and bags to boot,” says Irving Wu, the group property manager for Robinsons Nova Market.

Lunchtime, our group has a sumptuous serving of bulalo, seven kinds of them, at a nearby mini-nipa hut-filled garden restaurant called Bulalo Fiesta. It is located in Nova Stop, an open-air food court just beside the mall. It is open 24 hours and has 45 food stalls. Besides Bulalo Fiesta, other sit-down restaurants are Andok’s, Lipa Grille, Chevonns and American Diners.

To burn the bulalo calories, we walk around Sidcor Tiangge, which occupies the parking lot out-front. The stalls offer homemade goodies like bibingka, very large siopao (plate-sized, costs P50) and delicacies. Besides the usual ukay-ukay items, a major attraction is the store called Everything P10. I buy three wooden rosary items, each costing P10. Sidcor operates from 2 pm up to 10 pm, until December 31.

Of course, the retail hub also features the major Robinsons brands, like Robinsons Supermarket, Robinsons Appliances, Handyman Do It Center and Robinsons Movieworld, along with factory outlets for Adidas and Collezione.

On our way back to the heart of Mega Manila, Ricky points at the row of elegant two-story houses on a cliff-like piece of land behind the mall. “I like those cute villas. They’re beside Robinsons Nova Market, so aren’t they called Nova Villas?”

Nobody knows the answer but our amiable host Roseann says she owns all of them. We all nod in agreement and wish we have at least one of those Nova Villas.

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