Ever since I moved to the province (ok, Laguna is hardly a province since it’s very close to Alabang but hey, some people from the north consider Alabang a province already!), I’ve done my grocery shopping both in Laguna and in Alabang, depending on what I need to buy. Unfortunately for me, one stop grocery shopping is a rare thing because not all groceries carry what I need.
Back when I still lived in the city, I would make sure to be at the SM Makati grocery about 5 minutes before it opens to avoid the crowd. I would breeze through the aisles, be one of the first in line to choose meat, and pay for my purchases in about 45 minutes or less. That’s because there were probably about 10 of us doing their groceries as soon as it opens.
Here in the province, I tried going to Puregold at its opening time to avoid the crowd as well. Imagine my surprise when I saw the crowd inside! And I thought I was one of the few smart ones to make sure to get there early! Getting the meat proved to be quite a challenge. They have only 2-3 persons assigned to help the customers and its been proven everytime I go there that they cannot handle the crowd. Just to get all the meat that I need, it would take me about 40 minutes. 40 minutes! Just for meat! So add about 30 minutes for me to go through all the aisles, then I fall in line for about another 20 minutes to pay for my purchases. 20 minutes just staring at the person in front of me. Hay . . . .
Check out this lady . . . she was about two persons away from me. She was obviously getting impatient and she ended up leaving the line.
Turns out the person right in front of her bought loads and loads of items since she was going to resell it in her sari-sari store.
I ended up transferring counters as well but it was useless. All I could do was stare at my ice cream and pray that it won’t turn into soup by the time I get home.
Why can’t they just open all those empty counters????
So here are my assumptions as to why grocery shopping in the city vs the province during opening hours are quite different:
1. City people tend to go out at night more, that’s why they can’t wake up early to do their groceries. Hmm….even if I end up drunk after a night out, I still make sure to turn on my alarm at about 7:30 am so that I can be in SM before it opens. But people have said that I’m a weirdo for being like that, so I’m assuming that most can’t really wake up that early after a long night of partying.
2. Promdis are used to waking up early, which I’ve heard and seen from so many people. I’m like that, so I think I fit in quite well.
3. Shopping at Puregold is way cheaper than shopping at the regular groceries, so people would rather shop at a semi-airconditioned place than the wet market. Oh yeah, even if I dread shopping at Puregold because of the crowd, you can’t really beat the price. What I’d usually pay for one week worth of food would stretch until two weeks if I shop at Puregold.
I wonder if I’m right?
