Enter the Year of the Dragon and the new-generation supermarkets

I was a little wide-eyed girl when I first set foot on a grocery store, just a hop, skip, and a jump away from our house in an obscure neighborhood in Sampaloc, Manila. I was tagging along with my big sister to whom our mother would entrust the family’s grocery list whenever she was too ill to do the grocery shopping herself. I was filled with awe just looking at the infinite variety of goods and goodies lining the shelves of that small grocery. The store was owned by a Chinese guy named Mariano who allowed his customers to pay for their groceries at the end of the month — bless his pure trusting soul! He even had a little snack bar inside his store where he offered his very popular boiled saging na saba smothered with shaved ice and evaporated milk. Cool! Back in the 1960s, Mang Mariano was certainly ahead of his time.

Times have indeed changed. Today, you don’t go to the grocery or the supermarket just to buy suka or saging but a whole lot more. Like beauty products, clothes, sporting goods, school/office supplies, toys, house wares, hardware, appliances, bags, shoes, luggage, pet food, and even medicines and supplements.

Of course, we’re talking about the country’s first supercenter, Shopwise, that has gotten even bigger and better and wiser since it opened is first outlet in Alabang 14 years ago. And now, let’s talk about the new-generation supermarkets.

“This is our second pharmacy, the first was in Alabang,” Donnie Tantoco, Rustan Supercenters, Inc. president, tells us as he walks us through the renovated Shopwise Araneta built in 2004. “We’re doing this in exclusive partnership with Unilab. But we don’t just do it — we do it with excellence, with quality without being expensive. Originally, it’s from the customer insight. We listen to the customers and they say, ‘Why don’t you make our lives a little easier by putting the drugstore inside rather than outside?’ ‘And why don’t you present it the way we see it in First World countries?’ We have maintenance drugs that act as blood thinners because even the young, the fortysomething, have the so-called lifestyle ailments. We also have generic drugs which are cheaper; customers have a choice.”

Shopwise offers a full range of what customers need (or want), not just the bestsellers.

“Shopwise Araneta redefines supermarket shopping for our customers in the North with the new concepts we have brought in — from the well-thought-out store layout and merchandise arrangements to the latest product and food offerings we have,” declares Donnie.

As we walk down the wide, well-lit aisles, we notice how well laid-out the products are, per category, like they know by heart how Filipino consumers shop.

“We looked at not just how Target organizes its products but how they make them relate to each other,” Donnie explains. “We looked at their approach, their methodology, but then we studied how Filipinos looked for solutions, what is hard about shopping in the Philippines right now and what we can do to make it easy and adapt it to the Filipino market. And we brought in our Rustan’s department store approach to give it a nicer, more lifestyle presentation.”

The items are arranged according to function and emotion. “Yes, there’s an emotional component to selling a product,” Donnie notes. “Consumers, for instance, are looking not just for body care or hair care products but for a specific type of shampoo, conditioner or skin solution that may be whitening or moisturizing or both.”

And Rustan Supercenters has so much more in store for its valued customers this Year of the Dragon. Donnie reveals: “We are increasing our in-house brands like Sure Buy. We have 2,600 suppliers and there are only dozens of multinational large companies, so we have a very large base of SMEs (small and medium enterprises). Especially when it comes to fresh because we manage our own fresh section. We also offer organic products, we’re happy to be the exclusive retailer of Human Nature, but we’re making the range stronger by getting imports. We do a lot of direct importation, we travel around the world. We don’t deal with middlemen, we go direct to the source, wherever it’s coming from, and we buy it. There are healthy, organic, eco-friendly products that we carry exclusively, like Full Circle (think sauces, soups, preserves, spreads), Amy’s Kitchen, and Messy Bessy. We have a line of French products from Belle France. Coming soon is Casino, a whole line of French products that will be competitively priced. We’re also strengthening our men’s section. The line between men and women and the chores that they do are blurring. Nothing is haphazard, everything is customer-driven. The attention to service that we give, the whole idea of building a relationship with our customers and making the store an extension of their home.”

As we get busy sifting the shelves and realize it’s almost lunchtime, we’re super delighted to see some food kiosks/booths right inside the supermarket!

 “The first-generation supermarkets offered mostly canned and processed foods,” recalls Frances Yu, Rustan Supercenters, Inc. vice president for marketing. “When Shopwise began operations in 1998, it introduced the modern wet market concept inside the supermarket with a wide array of fresh produce, meat, fish, and seafood. The new-generation Shopwise and Rustan’s take this further by offering ready-to-cook food, like the marinated lines, and ready-to-eat food like roasted chicken and pork belly. But it doesn’t end here. We have elevated the supermarket shopping experience by offering lifestyle dining experiences inside the supermarket.”

So, what’s for lunch?

There’s the Shopwise Soda Fountain, a cherished diner back in the ’50s, with the famous icons of the period. While you relish the good old days, you can enjoy good old American fare like juicy burgers and hotdogs, freshly cooked fries, and milkshakes. Completing the whole ’50s fun dining experience is a retro jukebox that cranks out well-loved music from a bygone era. Once, the Village People’s Y.M.C.A. song was playing and a customer got so carried away that she got up while she was eating a big fat juicy burger and started doing the YMCA dance. 

Sure to stir the hungry soul is the Mongolian Stir Fry counter, the first-of-its-kind Mongolian grill within a supermarket. Whip up your own stir-fry treat by choosing from the heartwarming assortment of fresh vegetables, meats, seafood, and poultry, as well as sauces. Don’t be shy now and pile it up, and then have it cooked before your eyes. For this truly stirring experience, a hefty bowl costs a measly P149.

Then there’s the sooo tempting Sushi & Sashimi counter where freshly cut sashimi and sushi are prepared on the spot. Hai!

And of course, there’s the Le Gourmet Deli, for something light and healthily right. Oui, there are freshly made sandwiches and grilled sausages cooked on the spot. It’s also got special deli or cheese platters perfect for parties.

Frances adds, “Aside from lifestyle dining experiences, we also make the best food of the world available every day inside the supermarket.  For example, deli meats and cheeses from all over the world are now available for all. The likes of Parmigiano Reggiano, considered the king of cheeses, can be found side by side with Malagos cheese, which is produced locally.”

She observes, “Supermarkets are no longer just places where you buy products. They’re becoming the purveyors of lifestyle and international dining experiences. You can go inside a supermarket and actually enjoy a lifestyle dining experience or purchase products that will allow you to recreate a fine dining experience at home.”

Excuse me while I indulge in some retail therapy.