SM Supermarket raises the bar for shopping

MANILA, Philippines - On its 25th year, SM Supermarket further raises the bar for the complete shopping experience as it lines up more customer-friendly programs on a wider, nationwide scale.

With more shopping reward mechanisms, value-for-money packages, environment-oriented promotions and social responsibility thrusts, the country’s leading supermarket chain is also taking its superior customer service to a higher level – from the time one picks up a cart or basket to lining up for payment at the checkout counters.

“We want our customers to feel good while they shop. We are continuously evolving into something better, complementing the lifestyle of our customers and responding to their everyday shopping needs” said Mylene Mendoza, operations manager for SM Supermarket.

She said as a mall-based shopping destination, SM Supermarket provides an environment for leisurely shopping, where customer can take their sweet time buying groceries – even having free coffee on Sunday mornings – and enjoying the fast and efficient service at the checkout counters.

SM Supermarket has also set up special lanes for different transactions – the senior citizens’ lane, SM Advantage Prestige cardholder lanes, lanes for big carts and baskets.

To ensure faster checkout service, dedicated customer assistants are assigned near counters to guide shoppers to the fastest lane they can pay for their groceries. And to complete the personalized shopping experience, the customer assistants also help customers load their groceries in their private vehicles or in public transport terminals, for free.

Aside from its world-class interior design, state-of-the-art retailing technology, wide aisles, clean and airconditioned spaces, SM Supermarket is also known for the excellent quality and wide range of fresh foods, grocery items and home essentials at very affordable prices.

Mendoza said SM Supermarket carries from 40,00 to 60,000 products on its shelves, with over 1,000 items under its in-house brand SM Bonus, the first and leading house brand in the Philippines.

Products under SM Bonus – from fresh meat, poultry, canned goods, snacks, to personal care items, pet care and laundry aids – are 15 percent to 20 percent cheaper than leading brands, she pointed out.

She cited SM Bonus chicken as the most popular item “because it is competitively priced and can even compete with the pricing in the wet market.”

In fact, SM Supermarket has its own “modern wet market” with its Fresh Section, offering the same variety of selection in a wet market but with more shopping conveniences such as an airconditioned atmosphere, clean aisles, ‘suki’ culture, and accurate weighing of produce. To maintain the freshness of meat, seafood, vegetables and fruits, the products are delivered and turned over daily.

Shops such as pharmacy (Watson’s), laundry services, bills payment, money transfer and exchange outlets and food tenants add to make the whole establishment a one-stop-shop, Mendoza said.

SM Supermarket is likewise pushing its corporate social responsibility (CSR) program towards the protection of the environment with a project called My Own Bag (MOB) Day every Wednesday.

Started in May 2009 to reduce the usage of plastic bags in shopping, MOB Day is now implemented in 15 branches (12 SM Supermarket, two Save More and one SM Hypermarket), where shoppers are encouraged to bring their own shopping bags.

For those who do not bring their own, their purchased items will be put in paper bags instead of plastic bags. Customers who have not broken the plastic bag habit and still wish to use plastic bags may buy them at the store, proceeds of which will go to various environmental causes. Since the MOB project was launched, a total of P600,000 has been donated to the SM Foundation.

During the 1st month of implementation in SM Supermarket Makati alone, 20,000 plastic bags were saved per MOB Day or a total of 80,000 for the month. At present, over 500,000 plastic bags were saved by implementing the MOB in all the 15 branches.

Customers may also get their own environment-friendly SM Green Bags which are sold on a buy-one, take-one basis during the MOB Day. 

The SM Green Bag is a partnership between SM Supermarket and Unilever Philippines and was launched in June 2007. To date, a total of two million Green Bags have been sold.

SM Supermarket rose from its modest beginning in Makati in 1985 to become the anchor of the food retail business of the SM Group of Companies, one of the biggest conglomerates in the Philippines.

The food retail group — consisting of SM Supermarket, SM Hypermarket, Savemore and Makro – contributed more than half (58.4 percent) of total retail sales and a substantial 77.2 percent of net income in the first nine months of 2009.

Together with non-food unit SM Department Store, the retail mechandising operations of the SM Group contributed the most to the conglomerate’s bottom line with a 34 percent share in net income, surpassing the shopping malls, banks and real estate units.

SM’s retail group earned P3.1 billion in nine months last year, up 37 percent from P2.2 billion in the same period a year earlier.

Out of 83 establishments in SM’s food retail network thus far, 26 are SM Supermarkets, another 26 are Savemore outlets, 19 SM Hypermarkets, and 12 Makro stores.

“We continue to expand this 2010 with at least 20 branches to open in different areas of the country,” Mendoza said. “The continued expansion aims to bring the SM shopping experience as closer to as many Filipinos as we can; especially in the provincial areas.”