Revisiting Greenhills' tiangge
MANILA, Philippines - The Tiangge at Greenhills Shopping Center is a favorite urban bargain center of cost- and quality-conscious Filipinos. It is, after all, the country’s biggest tiangge and carries the widest variety of clothes, jewelry, gadgets, home furnishings, decorative plants and gastronomic delights, among many other great finds, at very attractive prices.
Like most notable success stories, the Tiangge at Greenhills started small. Its humble beginnings can be traced 33 years ago, when the Greenhills management saw the need to help its tenants dispose of their old inventories, which were gathering dust and taking up space in the shops.
In the mid 1970s the Greenhills Shopping Center Tenants’ Association headed by Jose “Dondo” Lim III, who was also the mall’s assistant general manager at the time, organized a Christmas bangketa sale where goods were sold at much lower prices. The rent collected from the stalls went to charity.
The Christmas bangketa sale drew crowds of patrons looking for cheap but quality products. It then became an annual event. The sale would run from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the open areas of the mall’s plaza before and during the holiday season.
In 1988, Ortigas & Company, owner of Greenhills Shopping Center, took over the operation of the Christmas bangketa sale. It became bigger, better, and more organized with uniform stalls. The summer and the midyear bangketa sales were introduced in the mid ‘90s,and gave rise to what is now known as the Greenhills Shopping Center Tiangge.
In the past years, more and more entrepreneurs are joining the tiangge, thus tripling its size. Greenhills management has been conscientious in keeping the tiangge a clean, safe, and pleasant shopping destination. These efforts have made Greenhills Shopping Center Tiangge a place where both locals and tourists, from a diverse range of social classes, come together to satisfy their cravings for best-quality and unique items at affordable prices.
Greenhills Shopping Center Tiangge has grown to become the country’s biggest urban bargain center and ultimate benchmark for value shopping.
