May 20, 2006 · Posted in: In the News

The Pinoy’s mall world

TOMORROW, SM will open its doors to its biggest mall in the country to date, the 400,000-square-meter Mall of Asia overlooking the Manila Bay.

Sitting on a 60-hectare lot, the mall boasts over 600 international and local shops, some 150 indoor and outdoor dining places, the country’s first Olympic-sized ice skating rink, and an IMAX theater with the world’s largest wrap-around screen.

“There’ll be more than enough distractions and attractions to keep 10 million Metro Manilans happy,” writes landscape architect Paulo Alcazaren in a column for the Philippine Star. “Not to mention a 180-degree unimpeded view of Manila’s fabulous bay!” A scholar of city and urban planning, Alcazaren has closely followed what he calls the “evolution and revolution” of malls in the country; in his column today, his excitement about the Mall of Asia is palpable.

Alcazaren begins his column noting how the Mall of Asia will be welcomed as “the ultimate” in shopping venues, given how Pinoys are “mall-crazy.” “They love to congregate at these modern-day urban centers to celebrate, ambulate, gorge, gossip, and gimmick,” Alcazaren writes.

Indeed, malls have often been described as the “new plazas” in urban areas such as Metro Manila, replacing the traditional social centers of a Philippine town. As cities get congested, leaving hardly any open spaces, malls play an increasingly important role in the lives of Pinoy families.

In malls, people watch movies, dine, shop; they have their hair cut, the soles of their shoes fixed, their teeth cleaned; they go to the gym, spend an afternoon in a luxurious spa, or on Sundays, hear Mass.

But Cecile Balgos, in an essay she wrote in 2002 for i magazine, says that malls fail where plazas succeeded:

“Unlike the modern mall, the plaza was accessible even to the great unwashed, who did not feel at all intimidated by the nearby presence of those who wielded social and political power. In colonial Philippines, the town square was surrounded by the church, the dwellings of the principalia and the ilustrado, and the municipio; the lowly indios lived farther away. But the plaza itself was open to anyone and everyone, allowing folks to share and enjoy a common space regardless of social stature, and for community spirit to develop. (Escolta, the legendary pre- and post-war shopping street of Manila, also catered mainly to the elite. But since it was a public street, even those who had nothing in their pockets did their paseo there and window-shopped.)”

Other than being “poor approximations of the old town square,” as Balgos calls them, malls are also being blamed for the slow and sure death of public city markets, the palengke. Alecks Pabico writes in i magazine:

“In this era of globalization, both national and local governments are succumbing to economic, social, and other pressures to privatize public services and facilities. Public markets have topped the list of public facilities undergoing privatization, and record numbers of vendors across the country are losing their stalls — and their means of livelihood.”

Pabico describes the plight of market vendors in Metro Manila cities who have been displaced by the encroachment of commercial centers into their turf.

But it seems there is no stopping developers of such commercial centers from expanding their turf, as Pinoys continue to patronize them and personal consumption buoys the economy.

At the time that Balgos wrote her piece, and this she specifically noted, personal consumption grew by four percent from the previous year. Recently, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), in its Annual Outlook for the Philippines noted how the growth posted by the country’s economy last year was generated mostly through personal consumption.

“While the economy remains in a slump,” writes Balgos, “Filipinos are still shopping.”

Read Balgos’s piece here and Pabico’s, here.

In the same issue of i magazine, famed poet-musician, Joey Ayala, wrote this piece:

Walking thru the wasteland

by Joey Ayala

We are walking
Hypnotized
By the music
And the lights
Look in shop windows
Window shopping
People happy
People smiling
Wondering what to buy
For whom
And why

And walking
Hypnotized
Entertainment
glassy eyes
going in and out
with their families
breathing fresh air
from the air-conditioning
So much better
than standing
In the smog

There’s a green green breeze
blowing thru the shopping mall
it’s electric but I don’t care at all
there’s a green green breeze
Blowing thru my mind
It’s a forest with trees and leaves
And waterfalls.

But we’re walking
Hypnotized
By the sugar
Sweet and high
fast food hunger
munchy munchy
Popcorn movie
Lots of action
And we’re flying off
to outer space

There’s a green green breeze
blowing through the shopping mall
it’s electric but I don’t care at all
there’s a green green breeze
Blowing thru my mind
It’s a forest with trees and leaves
And waterfalls.

We’re walking thru the wasteland.
walking thru the wasteland.

37 Responses to The Pinoy’s mall world

tongue in, anew

May 21st, 2006 at 2:35 am

Filipinos troop to the malls for a lot of reasons…other than shopping.

This phenomenal madness about malls started in the early nineties when Shoemart (SM) began its ambitious large-scale expansion after its success with North Edsa and Centerpoint, then Mega Mall. Robinson’s Corp. followed suit. And so did Ayala Corp. with its Alabang Town Center and Cebu Mall, Gaisano was not far behind with its expansion in Visayas, Mindanao and Bicol. New names haved cropped like Walter Mart, Uniwide, Target, Pure Gold and others. Not to mention members-only malls like Makro, Price Club, etc. Also, one-offs like the Lopezes’ Rockwell Center, Filinvest’s Festival Mall, joined the bandwagon.

All these malls were apparently doing good business despite the stiff competition. Except, I guess, for Uniwide which investments got caught in the real estate downslide after the late 90’s financial crisis. Ditto with the duty-free shops in Cllark and Subic which lost their appeal due to the relentless lobbying of local manufacturers who complained of being in the losing end of the price war between imports and local goods of the same brand, while others were exposed as big-time smugglers of frozen US chicken and other PX goods.

From simply enjoying the airconditioning to splurging on the latest gagdets, many mall-crazy Pinoys, however, are unaware of the looming danger lurking inside these huge, sprawling, self-contained microcosms.

We’re relieved to know that the high-tech holduppers, who insert headphones in your ear and play a Discman or an iPod to announce a stick-up, have taken their business somewhere else. Bag slashers and salisi gangsters are still comon, however. Furthermore, there were reports by the Chinese community that a few children have been kidnapped just as they stepped out of their cars in the malls’ parrking areas or just around these places.

We’ve also been witnesses to the annoying salesmen who lure their victims with raffles and dirt-cheap bargains just to get your credit card numbers. In the end, you buy things you don’t even need at prices even more expensive than usual.

Now, we hear that in the mad rush for constructing more new malls, mall owners have been tempted to replace their old and trusted building contractors with virtually unknown ones to further reduce their initial cost. At what expense? The safety of its patrons and stall renters.

SM’s Mall of Asia, once daunted as the biggest in Asia during the drawing stage, (although the long delay in construction made it possible for other countries to construct bigger ones, like Thailand’s Siam Paragon, the largest to date) had faulty foundation and substructures that its opening has been delayed due to cracks and a portion of its flooring gave way, I was told. Surely, you wouldn’t want to be inside it when the whole superstructure caves in. Remember, the whole complex lies on reclaimed Manila Bay and any missed and uncorrected flaw in the building could spell major disaster. This has been the talk among those in the construction industry when SM decided not to award this project to DMCI, its long-time contractor which is also known for its strong, rigid buildings evrywhere which have withstood the strong earthquakes of the 80’s unscathed. The winning bidder (was it Monolith?) did not have the experience and expertise of DMCI. SM gambled and lost.

My sister went to the newly-opened SM Sta. Rosa the other day and she was surprised that it was closed for repairs. She was told by the guard, “May gumuho sa sahig”. That’s two in a row! Probably the same contractor, too.

No, I don’t want to be killjoy, but just to be sure, the next time you go to the malls, don’t fall into a false sense of security from scrupulous characters just because everyone gets frisked by the guards on entry. Or just because the mall owner spent billions for his building, it won’t collapse. Most mall buildings, bacause of the great importance given by architects to security against pilferage and theft, are also notoriously known as fire code nightmares.

What comes after midnight madness? I sure hope its not mourning insanity.

Juan Makabayan

May 21st, 2006 at 4:24 pm

Malls are too artficial. Temples of Consumerism. I do go, but seldom.

Do we need mega-commercial complexes? Don’t they ‘concretize’ the great divide between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ in our society?

While most of our people can hardly eat, the few who are rich ‘problemize, dilemmatic’ ,
what to eat, French? Oriental? Fusion?
where to dine,
what to wear,
where to vacation,

I’m just thinkin’ of a solitary farmer, workin’ the muddied ricefields with his carabao, whose world is so far apart from those in the metropolis, that he wouldn’t even in his lifetime set foot nor even have a glimpse of these artificial world in Malls where much human energies and natural resources are expended. While the muddied magsasaka communes with the real as he produces, Mall-mad metropolites consume, all soaked up in artificialities.

Cecile Impens

May 21st, 2006 at 5:16 pm

But the sprouting of these gigantic malls is also the cause of the “death” of market stalls and small scale commercial districts in the country: not the battle between David and Goliath; with this Goliath devours David without pity! Indeed, smaller commercial centers will be facing tougher challenges.

Major cities dream to have big stablishments to showcase their infra facilities but fail to answer to the most basic and vital needs: efficient drainage systems, manageable traffic flows, adequate school facilities, properly paved roads and clean surroundings. It is true that these malls could provide more employment, but how many become jobless and bankrupt in return because small store owners cannot face the competition anymore? There would be laying-off of personnel as a solution.

Pure products of the “consumerism” plaguing rich countries, these malls (as the display windows of new and expensive products, enticing to spend more) have no place yet in our poor environment! We only need durable employment and a strong economy before wasting lavishly our feeble resources!

naykika

May 21st, 2006 at 5:52 pm

Although the biggest indoor mall in the World is in this country, The West Edmonton Mall, the trend lately is away from from indoor mall but instead the new new set up of perhaps the future “shopping”, the power outlets centres. It’s like a congregation of self standing structures, buildings of variety of designs, most representing the trademarks of its business, group into the same locations. Like in one corner, a walmart store, next building a Nike outlet store, next a home improvement store, a small specialty store for pets, maternity stores and just like your indoor mall, but open and mostly one story stores. With indoor malls, there is security to take care, too much power use (energy wasted) for airconditioning and heating as the case maybe. and the rent is so high and you know who’s going to pay for them. But in a country so hot in the summer, it is a blessing in some way. a place to be when the weather outside is not fit for the man and the beast..

chekwa

May 21st, 2006 at 9:41 pm

in some aspect, it is good that philippines is competing when it comes to high tech malls, it’s one way of showing that Filipinos are not left behind the craze among other countries that malls are really a big thing. for example Dubai, they have created mall in which a portion of has smow in it. talking about your in the desert. they will be building the biggest mall in the world. another competing is Kuwait in which they are building the biggest in Asia. i could go on forever citing builders of mall in every part of the world.

the bad part is, where on earth Filipinos will get the money to spend to this malls? i pity those people who can’t think of anything else but to be “in”. they will choose to go shopping for the lastest mobile, clothes, shoes, and every other unnecessary stuffs rather than to have food in their stomach. most Filipinos admit it or not have the tendency to over show themselves not thinking about the outcome of their lavish spending.

and whose earning? not the filipinos but those importers. it is about time my fellow kababayans to think about who we are going to support.

everytime i’m in the philippines, i don’t buy things in the supermarket. why? i want my friends from “palengke” know that i still suport them. i get the freshest vegetables from our loval markets. meats are not frozen, straight from the slaughter house, fish comes from the fisherman in small villages…and a lot more. most especially, you can ask for “tawad” and “hiling”. i wish filipinos will realize my points.

seeing the witch of malacanang with a wide grin in her ugly face while watching some sort of a movie(?) in the newly opened Mall of Asia makes me vomit. how the hell can she pull every filipinos lives like the way she’s doing? promoting the very thing that will make my friends from “palengke” suffers, makes the small time producers lose their source of income.

GOD SAVE THE PHILIPPINES!

ryebosco

May 21st, 2006 at 10:11 pm

I’m all for progress, modernization and globalization. However, we Filipinos have to take a nostalgic approach to regain what the Philippines WAS known for–the Pearl of the Orient.

In the above article, the plazas and streets such as Escolta of the past were mentioned because they defined our heritage, culture and history. I just wish that our architects, planners and developers take a more nostalgic approach to preserve the Pearl of the Orient by constructing classic architectures instead of modern buildings that look like the rest of the world. Imagine, had the Mall of Asia been patterned after pre-war Manila and Burnham’s master plan, it would have precipitated a renaissance movement.

In my opinion, it’s good that the Mall of Asia is helping the economy. However, it looks like a piece of manure.

Warsaw, the most destroyed allied city in World War 2, was able to rebuild its city from scratch. How come Manila turned out to be a chaos? To this day, the Ayuntamiento in Intramuros sits in a rotten state. Who knows, a McDonald’s or Jollibee might rise on it that looks like a spaceship.

Let’s go Filipinos and rebuild keeping in mind what we’re all about because “awareness of tradition is the foundation of our future.”

Just a thought

May 21st, 2006 at 10:15 pm

You got the point chekwa. By buying from the “palengke” we get to help the small tinderos and getting the freshiest harvests, and in so doing, directly helping our farmers. Why pay more in the supermarkets when you can get the same quality for a lesser money?

May 21st, 2006 at 11:54 pm

ryebosco said:
Warsaw the most destroyed allied city in the World War II, was able to rebuilt its city from scratch. How come Manila turned out to be a chaos?
1). Poland was in the hands of a “totalitarist” regime. And to have acceptance and recognition in the international community,( rest of Europe, USSR) they have this need to restore the “prestigious past” of their country.
2). Since they had nationalized everything right after the war, it had been easy for them to unite the whole working force of the nation, be it in restoration of their ruins, manufacturing of needed materials for the construction,
3).The “harsh discipline” imposed by this regime, thus even imposing them the communism sort of labor.
4). The Polish has this very deep sense of nationalism in their blood, thanks to their very long history of struggles and wars.
5). That after the massive destruction and pillage by the Germans, their sentiments focused in just one thing: restoration and recovery.
Whereas:
1).The Filipinos were not known for being nationalistic.
2). That despite of our colonial pasts (Spanish and American), there was no real war wage against the colonizers. Yes, our history spoke of Lapu-lapu, the Silangs, the Dagohoy, the Katipuneros, the GOMBURZA, BUT, in reality, these are registered as “local struggles” and not a nationwide resistance against the colonizers. In one word, there was no real national unity to drive the colonizers out of the country. One example is Aguinaldo’s betrayal of the Katipunan and the Katipuneros.
3). That the Filipinos never actually fought alone for the freedom of the country! Take the case of war between Spain and America (The Defeat of the Spanish Armada), thus resulted us being sold by the Spaniards to the Americans through the Treaty of Paris. Idem during the WW II, the Americans led by McArthur liberated us from the Japanese occupation, without the help of the Americans, what and where are we now? Just asking!
4). That the Filipinos never actually learned something positive from our history. Apart from the pronounced Catholism the spaniards has brought us, the hispanic resonance of our family names, the ever present landlords and decendants of our encomienderos, the rare colonial houses that still exist, what is there really left to remind us of our 300 years under Spain? We forgot that there we had been left of our Spanish heritage to take care of. But one thing that is very astonishing, is that we never even fully mastered the Spanish language, unlike the other countries colonized by Spain in Latin and Central America.
5). That even during and after the WW II, the country experienced the greed of several to obtain financial gain out of country’s misery. How many Filipinos been executed by the Japanese because of false accussations, because they provide informations to the guerillas and the Americans? That the “collaborators” work hand-in-hand with the Japanese to run the Philippines! And needless to say, their decendants are still very much affluent even to this day, very, very rich indeed. Not only that, they are all prominents government people!

There is this very wide difference between Polish and Filipino. The only thing we probably had in common is that these two(2) countries experienced the most destruction during the WW II. Warsaw, being the 1st most destroyed, Manila as the 2nd. But our period and manner of healing and reconstruction, brought different dimensions.

May 22nd, 2006 at 12:13 am

Addendum:
6). That in 1939, Quezon City was established. The government thought that it had been much easier to build a new city (Quezon City)than restoring the destroyed one (Manila).

Indeed, it just says: There was NO URGE to restore the past that was not theirs!

May 22nd, 2006 at 12:22 am

This is to correct an erronous data given above:
Not the Defeat of the Spanish Armada, but the Battle of Manila Bay (1898) by Dewey and Montojo! Thanks!

baycas

May 22nd, 2006 at 6:52 am

one-stop shops, where even your warts can be removed, are Pinoy’s small world…

of course, only to those who can afford to have a decent clothing to merit entrance to the air-conditioned malls with fully-guarded ports.

this small world is sort of a reflection of how the moneyed classes are “in” while the great unwashed are “out.”

…a smaller depiction of the worldly life, the Pinoy’s mall world it is.

scud_1975

May 22nd, 2006 at 6:58 am

Nalalapit na ang katapusan ng mga tindahan sa Baclaran.Masakit mang tanggapin,pero kasama na rin tayo sa pumapatay sa mga Palengke. Paano?

Una..sa pakikipagtawaran. Talaga bang iniisip natin ang kalagayan ng mga palengkero at palengkera? O ang iniisp lang natin kung paano tayo makatawad at makalamang? At ang kawawang tindera kaysa naman mabulok ang paninda at nang makauwi na rin ng maaga ibebenta na lang kahit palugi. Habang masaya si middle class dahil nakatawad, masama naman ang loob ni lower class dahil maliit ang kita..samantalang si upper class pangisi ngisi lang habang pinapanood sila. Binabarat natin masyado ang mga tindero/tindera sa palengke…kaya ba natin gawin kay Henry Sy yan?

Pangalawa..sa paghingi ng dagdag. Nakita nang nakatumpok, tinimbang at binayaran na pero aalis na lang dadampot pa ng isa. Aysus! Ang kawawang si
tindera naman ibibigay na lang kaysa mawalan ng “suki”. Ginugulangan natin masyado ang mga tindero/tindera sa palengke….kaya ba natin gawin kay Henry Sy yan?

Pangatlo..sa paghingi ng sukli. Masyado tayong makunat sa pagbibigay ng “tip” sa palengke, hanggang sa kahuli hulihang sentimo kinukuha natin. Kung walang baryang panukli dadampot na lang ng isang piraso ng kamatis o isang dakot ng kalamansi. Sobra pa ang halaga kaysa sa sukli. Samantalang sa Department Store ng SM, “keep the change” na ang 25cents. Kung bibilangin mo nga naman ang koleksyon ng SM sa mga hindi naibibigay na sukli sa isang araw siguradong mas malaki pa sa sweldo mo. Tandaan natin kung ano lang ang nasa resibo iyun lang ang may buwis, tayo na rin ang nagpapayaman sa mga yan. Inuutakan natin masyado ang mga tindero/tindera sa palengke….kaya ba natin gawin kay Henry Sy yan?

Toro

May 22nd, 2006 at 7:52 am

Cecile says,

“1).The Filipinos were not known for being nationalistic”. Cecile finds it surprising why Latin America speaks Spanish and the Filipinos do not in spite of 300 years of domination.

I think Cecile missed the point why the early Filipinos did not embrace the Spanish language. Did it occur to Cecile that the cruelty of the Spanish conquistadores made the early Filipinos repudiate anything that was Spanish? Their lands became friar lands and were denied their civil liberties. Rizal and many other nationalists put to death, including the three priests, Gomez, Burgos, and Zamora (Gomburza) were the last straws that precipitated the Katipuneros to rise against Spain. That was pure nationalism put to the test if you ask me. Not arm-chair nationalism.

May 22nd, 2006 at 9:06 am

Like it or not, the rise of commercial malls is a sign of economic progress. No one can deny that. No one can stop progress when people are financially progressive. There may be those who cannot afford buying from mall shops but that is not enough reason not to build malls. Malls are not designed for people who have no money. Highly successful businessmen are visionaries in their own right for they see the bright future of the country where others do not. They think big and don’t look at Pinoy’s world as small. They are not defeatists in their thinking and look at things always positively.

Mall shops are there for those who can afford them. People are not forced to buy from them. There are also tiangges where items are affordable, and for those super bargains there is always Divisoria or 168 Mall, Farmer’s Market, Baclaran, etc. These cheap stores will not fade away even with more malls in the drawing board because they sell cheap items. How often do you see bargain hunters riding in their expensive Mercedes, Beamers or Volvos haggling with the bakya crowd in cheap places like Divisoria.

Malling or window shopping is not my way of passing time, but I alway find it enjoyable seeing people, the rich and poor alike, go there to buy stuff, eat or simply enjoy and have fun. I find it even more delightful when on week ends I see a young father and mother strolling their little baby in the mall or families with their small kids spending the whole Sunday at the mall enjoying the sight. They don’t buy anything, except perhaps for cheap hot dogs or burgers to complete their lunch. Maybe you fail to see the significance of the malls to some poor people who may not afford buying the stuff but having fun enjoying the bright sights anyway. Thanks to the malls for fulfilling some simple desires of some poor souls.

gwaping

May 22nd, 2006 at 2:18 pm

Tory y Cecille,

The reason why only few Filipinos speak Spanish is because the educational system introduced by the spaniards are not that effective and pervasive unlike in the Latin America, another reason is that the concentration of spanish colony are only limited to few cities and municipalities, it’s thinly spread, that explains as well why we have adopted spanish words and letters with distortion, example: Kubeta is toilet to us when it’s real meaning is BUCKET; Lamesa for us when it is La Mesa and many more…

To me, the rising of malls is not an issue of Nationalism, it only shows progress in our RETAIL and REALTY business.

It is unfair to compare our ‘palengkes’ and the ‘malls’, they are just different forms of ‘retailing’, BOTH have their own plus and minuses, it’s just up to us where to go, NO BIG DEAL!

May 22nd, 2006 at 2:39 pm

A large number of Pilipinos are nationalistic, but as whole we are not known to be. We can not even agree what is best for our national welfare. Our politicians (lot of them) instead of working for the well being of the nation, they work for their individual and immediate family well being. Going back to the Katipuneros, they even themselves were infighting that they were not able to “kick” the colonizers out and it not for the 20 millions of gold and the defeat in Cuba of Spain, maybe by now we all will be spanish speaking. And at present, a million or two can bribe just about any leader, public servant, private citizen to turn around 180 degrees, damn “the nationalism”, who cares and some takes even less.

May 22nd, 2006 at 3:01 pm

Alecks Pabico writes in i magazine:

——————-
This is just a natural evolution of retail trade business in our country, there’s nothing wrong of commercial centers sprouting all over. On the matter of Public Markets being privatized, I think it’s a call of time, privatization is efficient! In the end it’ll be good for the CONSUMERS!

Increasing of PERSONAL CONSUMPTIONS is a non-issue! One big EXPLANATION to this is the increasing OFW remittances, ‘yun lang yun!

May 22nd, 2006 at 5:37 pm

to scud_1975:

ang tawad ay di masama kapag alam mo kung magkano talaga ang presyo ng isang bagay na binibili mo. tumatawad lang naman ang isang mamimili kapag alam nya na mahal ang partikular na paninda na nakahain sa kanya.

sa hiling naman, alam ng bawat tindera na kasama sa kanyang negosyo ang paghingi ng mamimili ng hiling. nakalaan na ang pasobra sa bawat mamimili. hindi sila nakakaawa kagaya ng sinasabi mo sapagkat kusang loob naman nila binibigay yon.

alam ko ang sistema ng palengke dahil minsan naging laman ako ng palengke sa aming bayan. isa akong tindera dati, at masaya sa kalooban namin na magbigay ng hiling at may kalkulasyon kami para sa mga pagtawag ng mamimili.

stoxbnx3

May 22nd, 2006 at 7:47 pm

why not save instead of splurging in malls?

Ambuot Saimo

May 23rd, 2006 at 3:11 am

Let’s face it… Pinoys can still afford to go to malls because of the remittances/padala of the foreign workers. In 2004 it was just about 7 billion dollars and in 2005 it surged to about 12 billion dollars. The increase is not because of improved Philippine economy (as claimed by the Arroyko administration) but because these workers “doubled” their padala by working even harder due to their relatives’ incessant complaints about their inability to keep pace with increases of everything but salary. These mega malls are actually the conduit or “funnels” where the Pinoy workers throw out their money going to the coffers of billionaire-owners. The gimmick is simple… give local workers little salary so that they will be forced to go abroad and presto… they have the mighty dollars. Do you think these malls will exist without the OFWs?

May 23rd, 2006 at 1:35 pm

to ambuot saimo:

naging OFW ka na ba para sabihin na dahil sa amin kaya nageexist ang mga malls na yan?

to tell u honestly, dito kami namimili kasi mas mura dito at mas magaganda ang style dito, tsaka namin ipapadala sa pinas. di namin papayagan na ang hard earned money namin ay ibili lang sa mga malls na yan kasi mas magagandang klase ang nakikita sa mga malls dito.

ang pinapadala namin eh tamang panggastos sa mga anak namin, sa eskwela, pambayad sa insurance kung meron at makapagpagawa sana ng bahay kung medyo malaki-laki ang padala. makapag-ipon ng kaunti para di naman kami palaging nasa malayo at sa bandang huli para makapiling ang mga mahal namin sa buhay.

mag-isip ka? bakit namin papayagan ang mga gumagastos ng pera namin dyan sa pinas kung mas maganda at maayos, mas mura ang mga bilihin dito? hindi lahat eh pwedeng malaman ng isang tao…may tawag kami dyan sa batangas…
“MATALUTI”

DuckSidious

May 23rd, 2006 at 10:35 pm

A nice counterpoint:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/21/news/city7.php

Sifting for a living on trash mountain

….

When she works – which in fact is just about every day – Janoras is deep in the garbage for 11 hours, starting at dawn. On her best days she can earn a bit more than $3.

“We spend whatever we have,” she said. “If I get lucky one day, we eat well. But sometimes we have to make do with just rice and fish paste.”

A sparrow-thin woman who has lost most of her teeth, Janoras is one of 150,000 people who scavenge or recycle the 6,700 tons of garbage produced each day in Manila, something of a symbol of the poverty and urban collapse of this gigantic slum of a city

May 24th, 2006 at 4:13 am

The Pinoy penchant for malls – shopping or otherwise, was a bullseye venture capitalists could only dream of hitting. It took one visionary such as Henry Sy, an immigrant Chinese who, in his humble beginnings, pushed his kariton of shoes around Binondo, to find the holy grail for retail businessmen. SM’s success unquestionably is a product of several years of hard work, and excellent planning and courageous risk-taking.

From its first “department store” in Carriedo to, now, Mall of Asia, Henry Sy and his children’s vigorous pursuit for more business has taken their flagship to even higher planes. Banco de Oro, another SM offshoot which started out as, I think, a thrift bank which handled their gift check and PO transactions, will very soon dislodge Ayala’s BPI from the second spot. It’s acquisition of I-Bank, and hopefully without more controversy, Equitable-PCI, will challenge the top spot long enjoyed by George Ty’s Metrobank.

Its real estate holdings are so enormously huge, its total area has been calculated to be seven times the size of Singapore in the past years, I won’t be surprised if by today it has reached 8 or 10 times already! Three new malls are planned to be built every year in the country. I’m not privy to those planned for abroad to add to their number of malls in China.

I agree that the malls do not threaten the palengke or tiangge or even the talipapa, it just caters to a different set of clientele. Pinoys, generally, are wise buyers, what with the ever dwindling purchasing power. And no, the phenomenon is not because of the OFWs – alone.

When we know where it’s cheaper to buy in volume, we go there however far it is. When we need to buy “tingi”, there’s your neighborhood sari-sari store. For emergency purchases, we go to the more expensive convenient stores. The wide range of price differences, product mix, and convenience (and maybe security too) will always dictate when, where, and how we buy. The malls offer all of these, and that’s the main reason people from all walks of life troop to the malls.

Sabi nga ng SM: “We got it all”.

May 24th, 2006 at 5:48 am

price of commodities would go down theoretically with competition…of course if the players are legal and are not cutthroats.

what if the amazingly low-priced goods at 168 mall would continue and similar malls would proliferate…then it would surely be a boon to us.

according to leila’s article there really is an explanation to the mind-boggling basement rates at 168 mall…and rumor has it, SM got dented (sales-wise) in the process.

…at yiwu, they got it all for you!

May 26th, 2006 at 3:54 am

Malupit yung 168 mall na yan Baycas. Grabe ang tao last Christmas. Nagpunta kami hoping to buy gifts for kids pero hindi pa kami nagtatagal we decided to transfer instead to SM Tutuban. Imagine, patagilid ang lakad dahil sa siksikan, akala mo alimasag ang mga tao kung maglakad.

Majority of the goods are superduperextra cheap kaya lang superduperextralow quality naman. But its the same thing you find in tiangges and even some malls but priced 2 to 3 times more. Yung nabili naming mga plastic rifles, 4 out of 10 were defective, batteries were expired, yung curling irons for girls (P150 lang while sa malls P400, same brand!). May mga action figures na normally P1000+ sa SM, sa 168 P200 lang, ang lufet! Mga hand tools (pliers, screwdrivers, steel tape), P20 lang, grabe.

Obviously smuggled lahat ito dahil halos material value na lang ang mga presyo. Mukha ring me orbit dito si Mayor Atienza. Pati nga sa TV program niya, siya pa mismo nag-eendorse sa 168.

What is positive here is that the Chinese are teaching us lessons in manufacturing and marketing and a lot of our companies are taking it seriously.

divi

May 28th, 2006 at 4:51 pm

everything u said about 168 mall is true. but we seemed to miss the whole point. those people selling there are aliens, most of them illegally staying here. and they are violating the National Retail Act, thats why SM is complaining. ask those store owners who is that person indicated on the receipt as the proprietor? (Name of their saleslady) or better how much tax do they pay (what tax? philippines is a tax free country)? they change their store registration every year so that they are always non-VAT. Ask how much salary they pay their workers (100 to 150 pesos/day). in allowing them to exist, we are virtually cutting off the Filipino middleman who buy from importer/wholesaler and selling them at our friendly talipapa/bangketa and tiangges. but of course, we the consumers are the ultimate beneficiaries when these illegal aliens sell to us at cheap prices. to hell with the filipino middleman. we are not a nationalistic race anyway.

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