My mom and I have the same tradition every year. For my birthday, she takes me shopping and I treat her to lunch. Obviously, this deal favors me more, as I’m the one coming home weighed down by bags filled with stylish jackets, pants, and shoes that only cost me a delicious lunch and coffee. But that’s okay; it is my birthday after all, and even though all the nice clothes are awesome, the time we spend together is what really counts. They say that by the time you hit 18, you will have already spent 90 percent of all the time you will ever spend with your parents. Ninety percent! The thought makes me a little somber every time. You need to cherish the time with your parents, and that’s why I’ll freely admit that this shopping tradition becomes a little more important to me with every year that passes.
But enough with the sentimentality already; let’s go shopping! Destination? Designer Outlet Roermond. It’s promising to be a long day, so preparation and strategy are essential.
I live in Groningen and my mom in The Hague, so the first thing we needed was a comfy base of operations near Roermond. A place where we could prepare ourselves with a hearty breakfast in the morning and collapse on the couch in the evening. We opted for an apartment at Parc Maasresidence Thorn. With a view across the Maasplassen and a mere 15-minute drive from Roermond, it proved to be the perfect sanctuary to retreat to after a long day of retail therapy. However, there was another far more strategic reason for choosing the apartment: when you book at Parc Maasresidence Thorn, you receive a 10% discount on all your shopping at Designer Outlet Roermond! Upon check-in, you will receive the voucher, so basically, you snag your first deal before even having set foot in a shop!
Planning is everything. Before our arrival, we printed out the floor plan of Designer Outlet Roermond. If you’re given only one day to shop, efficiency is key. First, we both marked the shops we absolutely wanted to see. Afterward, we drafted a route that included all the marked shops and would also deliver us to a great restaurant at the halfway point. We both put on a pair of loose-fitting sneakers that could easily be removed when trying on clothes. Furthermore, we wore neutral-colored clothing so that it would not interfere with anything we mixed and matched. Enough preparation. Time for action!
We might have been planning on drinking a few glasses of wine during lunch, so we both thought it best to take the bus. Luckily, it turned out to be a very straightforward ordeal. We found the bus stop just outside the gates of Parc Maasresidence Thorn, on the opposite side of the road. It was a direct line to Designer Outlet Roermond, and we were dropped off right in front of the shopping village, saving us precious retail time!
The moment had arrived! My mother and I are professionals when it comes to sauntering and meandering. With our hands clasped behind our backs, we strolled past the storefronts at a mighty leisurely pace. Naturally, we entered every shop previously marked on our map. As for the others, we had our golden 1 + 1 rule: to be worthy of our consideration, a storefront was required to have 1 item with an intriguing look and 1 item with an intriguing price. They did not necessarily need to be the same thing. Once inside, we would both set up our base of operations on our respective ends of the shop. The mirror in the center was neutral ground where clothing items were presented, discussed, and assessed. The standard routine went a little like this: you find something that you like and call out, “What about this one?”. That’s the signal for your shopping companion to make their way to the mirror, possibly taking one of their own finds with them as well. The first round of elimination takes place at the mirror. If something is deemed worthy, it will find its temporary position draped across your arm. Once your arm tires and there are no interesting items of clothing left, you make your way to the fitting rooms. Preferably, you will find two adjacent cubicles to reconstruct the classic outfit-change montage from almost every Hollywood rom-com: you come out simultaneously, judge each other’s outfit, and walk back again to change into the next item.
Our meticulous planning bore further fruit as we came to our halfway point right around lunchtime. At Café Restaurant Legato, we delighted our palates with some great Italian dishes accompanied by a bottle of dry white wine. I opted for a pizza with gorgonzola, mozzarella, pear, walnut, and lamb’s lettuce, while my mom had pasta with garlic-fried shrimp and chili oil. From the comfort of our prominent promenade spot, we had a perfect view of the shopping crowds. I might be the only one, but for me, nothing beats scrutinizing your fellow retailers while shopping. We spent an hour gossiping about the outfits people wore, guessing at the personalities underneath. Then, we philosophized whether people were thinking the same thing about us.
After another cup of coffee, we were back at it once more. We had a few more shops to enter, and after that, we revealed our Maybe List. The Maybe List is exactly what you think it is: a list of all the things along the way that left us in doubt. We carefully kept track of each item and the shop in which we saw it. This made retracing our steps a whole lot easier. One of the things we were on the fence about was an orange-white raincoat. Upon our return, however, both of us suddenly really loved it, and we ended up buying two! The Maybe List: it works!
With painful feet, but smiling nonetheless, we boarded the bus back to Parc Maasresidence Thorn, where we melted into the couch as promised. However, the day was not quite over yet. We weren’t just going to get up and leave the resort without trying the three-course menu at Humphrey’s Thorn. We both selected our favorite new outfit; blue shorts with a blue-white-yellow plaid shirt and blue sneakers for me, and green jeans with a striped red-and-white shirt and white sneakers for my mom, and headed over to the large terrace overlooking the Maasplassen. There, we went to town on some fried scampi in yellow curry, oyster mushroom ragout, and “kletskoppen” ice cream with almond shavings. After that, we looked up at the setting sun across the water and fell silent for a moment: exhausted and fulfilled.
Thanks, ma. I hope we can still do this for many more years.
