PHILIPPINE SHOPPING

Disintecting fruits and vegetables

Here's what we've learned about shopping. There are more enormous malls in the Metro Manila area than we could ever have imagined. Within two miles of us there is the Mega Mall which is the largest mall in the Philippines. It has over six floors high and covers a huge city block or more. We've never seen anything like this.


Then within a short distance of this mall there is the Shangri-la mall, the Ortegas Center, The Robinsons Mall, and Market Market just to name a few. Everyone is very modern with high end stores. Each worker in every store dresses alike. They are very service oriented and have lots of employees and security guards. They all call Carla Mom but what they are trying to say is Maam. But the a's are pronounced short so it sounds like Mom. They all call Randy Sir. So when we are together they say "How can I help you Mom Sir? Every mall also holds at least one large grocery store. Which is very well supplied. Nothing is inexpensive here except labor. You can find some better deals on the street markets. For instance, large wet markets where people are selling their fruits, vegetables, fish, and meats. You can even pick the chicken you want slaughtered there on the spot. Now, that's fresh meat. So far we have only purchased fresh meat shipped in from Australia. The caution we have to take is that every fruit, vegetable, can, etc. must be dipped in a disinfectant for a few seconds and then rinsed and allowed to dry. So when you come home with a few bags of groceries, you have a lot of work ahead. This is definitely a third world country so you really wonder and question who is really buying all of this stuff. Randy thinks it's me. Anything that has a common brand that we see in the U.S. is very expensive here. We buy it anyway!!!! I need my Cheerios and Campbell's cream soups. There's a store similar to Costco here called S&R. It actually carries some of the Costco brands and was the forerunner to the Costco chain in the U.S. This is also the country of pearls. Carla has already purchased one necklace and earrings. They are really beautiful,... and we may need to have financial help for this mission!! Ha! Ha! It's all good.