Mystery Critic

Happy Shopping (for less!) in the Philippines

It is no surprise that in a country like Philippines, given its abundance of cheap labor and agricultural products, there are LOTS of good deals all over the place.  I'm going to cover both goods and services, categorized by under US$1 and US$1 or more.

To see or print a list of great bargains in a table format, see http://www.mystcritic.com/philippines_bargain_price_list.

NOTE: Like any other country in the world, Philippines marketplace is PACKED with low-end Chinese products, from toys to fruit baskets to dinnerware, that might be super cheap, but I won't include them here because you can find those things just about in any country now.

Under US$1

P6-10 ($0.15-0.20) Ice Cream in a Sugar Cone - You can find these in most malls like SM.  They are sold in a little both near the escalators.  They are the soft machine-made ice cream and they're small, but you can even put chocolate coating on it with a few cents more.  Definitely UNBEATABLE if you have small kids who can't yet tell the difference between Hagen Daas and El Cheapo ice cream (YES why pay $3 when you can pay $0.15 and get the same WOW effect!).

Special Note - There's a small chain of ice cream stands called "Thumbs Up" that let you select 5 flavors of ice cream in tiny cones for less than $1.  You can find it in Mall of Asia and some other big malls.

P15-P20 ($0.40) Balut - Egg with a chick embryo - This is the ultimate cultural experience - who cares about all those implications and the visual grostesqueness, if it tastes good just go for it.

P20 ($0.45) Good-Size Bag of Snacks like Spicy Japanese Peanut Snack, 5.64oz. - This is a good-size bag of snacks for a very reasonable price.  You can get same thing Japanese or Taiwanese for $2 or enjoy this local brand, decent quality product.  Found in all supermarkets or Mercury drugstore.  BTW there are many other snacks sold near supermarket checkout counters that are very inexpensive but they may not taste that great.

P45 ($1) For Four 2x2 Pictures - If you came all the way from some foreign land, why not bring a digital photo file that has your frontal shot to a Kodak or Fuji.  No matter how bad your picture is, they'll fit it into a square print out four 2x2 prints for a dollar.  They are typically done in less than a hour and you can find those photo shops in any mall.  And you thought those $5 set of two passport photos in Costco was a good deal.... 

Higher-Priced Bargains

P50-P300 ($1-6) Fruits - $1 pineapples, $0.25 mango, $0.5 hawaiian papaya, $3 durians, etc.  Great deals are abundant!  It's interesting to note that street vendors can be more expensive than supermarkets like SM - especially if you look indisputably foreign!

Under P300 ($6) 1-hr Massage - OK so this is not going to take place in Shangri-La or Peninsula, where on earth can you spend $6 and have someone massage you for an hour??  We've seen P300 at-home or P270 mall massage cells (literally a cell, no bigger than a half-size cubicle.  You can always to the Shang for P2000, which is STILL a steal compared to what you'd pay for in the US for equivalent quality (let's say $120 to start with). 

BTW, if you know anyone at the Rockweel Club, they've got one of the best value for high-end massage, P600 for one hour at a nice facility, almost comparable to The Spa.  

P500 ($10) All Star or New Balance - Alright, I'm not sure if they are legal, but in Greenhills these are the BEST deals I've ever seen.  They look pretty genuine to me and they are sure CHEEEEAP compared to what you'd pay for in the US.  I have friends who bought them and they seem to be doing just fine - no sole has slipped off yet.

P250 - P500 ($5 - $10) Nike DryFit Shirts or Shorts - Yes these are like the All-Star or New Balance and they are LEGAL!  Also found in Greenhills, they mostly have original labels and tags, but they are slightly defective.  Compared to the US$25 that you would pay for these in the US, the deal is TOOOO good to miss.  I'm not even a Nike fan but I love wearing them - they are almost made for the tropics! 

P200-P500 ($4-$10) per person seafood feast at a Dampa - In most countries, you have to pay a premium to eat fresh seafood versus meat.  Well, not in Philippines!  There are a number of dampas around metro Manila, like one in Pasay near MOA and one in Paranaque right under flight path.  For P120 a kilo you get a dozen oysters, and P300 get you a kilo of tiger prawns.  Cooking charge will come to around P100 per dish.  So you can have a group of four adults consuming P2000 (US$40) of seafood and be VERY full!  Crabs - specially female and lobsters are of course more expensive, but not by that much.

P150 ($3) and Up to Fix All Types of Electronics - Bring whatever electronics to Philippines - camera, dvd player, game consoles or portable games, cell phone, etc, and the ultra patient and highly skilled Filipino workers will be more than happy to fix them for you for a fraction of what it would cost in the US.  I'm not talking about stalls in the slums, but often at authorized dealers!  Example: changing a burnt internal voltage converter for P150 (US$3), fixing a camcorder for P1100 (US$23) - parts included!!, restoring bad connection of a iTouch for FREE (they just jerked it around and it worked....), replacing a Nintendo DS screen for P200 (US$4) + cost for LCD scree, etc.