SM (originally Shoe Mart) is the Philippines’ leader in the retail industry. For more than 40 years this chain has grown from a tiny one-man discount shoe store in Qiapo (Chinatown), Manila to a chain that covers all of the Philippines and even some stores in other Asian countries. You can see most of the mall locations here, on this map I made (just zoom in to go all the way down to street level if you care to).
The most popular post on this blog, bar none, is one I made a month or so ago about shopping and prices in SM. So, who am I to argue, here’s more info for your shopping planning/pleasure. I will only post the prices in Philippines Pesos current 15 February 2008 … you can figure them out on your own with the current exchange rate when you happen to read this. The most up to date convertor is here.
Magic Sing duet (two mike) karaoke set …………………………. 16,500
Whirlpool 1 kg washing machine ………………………………….. 15,999
American Home 5 kg (twin tub)washing machine …………………. 4,999
Dowell 14 inch Box Fan (table top) ………………………………… 2,999
Tagwood Electric Juicer ……………………………………………. 4,999
Nikon 16 inch industrial floor fan ……………………………………. 799
Standard 2 burner Counter Top LPG range, Stainless Steel ………… 789
Samon 14 inch cable ready semi-flat TV with remote …………….. 3250
Fukuda DIVX Player with USB, SD card, CD, DVD, digital Dolby …… 1749
Helena 36 x 75 (Single) steel bed frame ……………………………. 1999
Hyper Living 4 seat Dinette Table and Chairs ………………………. 5999
Alps Living Room Set (3-seat couch and 2 arm chairs) …………….. 7999
Colgate Apple Mint fresh Confidence toothpaste, 150 ml …………. 77
Savana (kids size) chinellas (flip flops) ………………………………. 39
Kids size denim flare jeans (yes, the 1980′s look) ………………….. 380
Pringles 120g can ………………………………………………………. 54
Coke Light, 1.5 l bottle ……………………………………………….. 34
Nagaraya cracker Nuts, 160g sack …………………………………….. 19
San Miguel lite beer, 330 ml can ………………………………………. 24
Fundanor brandy, 1 L …………………………………………………. 474
California Rice, 25 kg, ………………………………………………… 860
555 Sardines, 425g can ………………………………………………… 23
Century Tuna 184 g, chunk in oil …………………………………….. 30
Vigan Longganisa, 500 g ………………………………………………. 85
Beef cubes (strew meat) 500 g ………………………………………. 98
lean ground pork, 500 g, ……………………………………………… 68
Carrots, 500g, …………………………………………………………. 25
Fuji Apples, 6 back, #80, …………………………………………….. 100
Sanicare, 400 sheet toilet paper, 12 rolls …………………………… 129
Tide detergent, 2.2 kg plastic sack, ………………………………… 182
OK, that ought to be enough to keep you calculating for a while. remember, it is not what things cost here that will decide of you can succeed at living in the Philippines … the deciding factor is if you can adapt to the life style … it will not adapt to you. Prices are only a small consideration.
Popularity: 9% [?]
Shopping in the Philippines, on that one could write a book. But I’ll just pass on one simple rule. Never and I mean never ask a store employee where an item is located. The responce will be “OUT OF STOCK”, when infact they just realy don’t know where it is. Ponder on this and understand that the kid gets paid 2-3 hundred pesos for 12 hours work, and why should they bother to learn where anything is. They know what the boss said to do today and no more. Learn your way around the store and you’ll find what you want. Unless it is realy “Out Of Stock”!
Yep. It’s better just to learn how things are done and do for yourself in many ways, Paul. There is also a subtle part of language difficulty that can be easily overlooked.
The screen door closer on my front door wore out and started letting the door slam shut. There’s no way the landlord is going to fix something like that, so better not to raise my blood pressure by asking, waiting, and then being told no.
I had to go to the mall anyway so I went in Ace Hardware …yes the same Ace Hardware from the US, “Ace is the place with the helpful hardware man”. Ordinarily I would go to a non-mall store, it would be cheaper, but I knew Ace had the exact same door closers and I was lazy … no trying to find a place to park in the bayan, and the replacement would fit the same mounting holes, so no digging out a drill, making holes etc.
But I forgot which aisle the door closers were in, so as I was walking along looking a very nice young fellow in his snappy Ace uniform came up and asked if he could help. “Sure|”, I said, “A Screen Door Closer’”.
Blank look. Repeated words, no help. Pantomime of screen door closing, no help. While I talked to him I walked and looked and then, there they were, in bright yellow boxes with the words “Screen Door Closer” prominently printed in black. I pointed to the words and asked if I had said the words wrong with my American accent, or if there was a Tagalog word I should have used to make it easier.
He carefully ran his finger along the words, sounding them out and then repeated back., “Oh yes sir, screen door closer, no sir your accent was fine and I don’t know any Tagalog word for this either.”
… “but I didn’t know that was the name of the product, sir.”…
Hearing and spoken English comprehension , fine. Reading and written English comprehension, fine. Appearnce, politeness, eagerness to help? Above reproach.
Thought that the name of something printed on the box might be the name the ‘thing’ was called? Beyond comprehension.
I’m not writing this to bust on a nice young kid who was having a bad day at work. I’m writing it to hep some of my fellow Americans realize “culture shock” is a lot more than people eating embryo duck eggs. There were two ways to handle that situation with the clerk. Raise my voice, get exasp[erated, try to teach him to use the brain and the knowledge he obviously possessed but refused to use, or to smile, thank him, and take my new P300 door closer over to the cash register and move on to my next adventure of the day.
I chose the low stress option, however, YMMV.