In praise of the traditional markets of the Philippines or “Palengke” and why supermarkets are useless.
Today I wondered to myself.. What can the supermarket such as SM, Waltermart, and so on offer that the palangke can not?
I came to the conclusion that if people wanted to the palangke can give anything the supermarket can not offer.
Consider this..
The supermarket is a giant building that people are working in for a salary for single company.
The palengke is a giant building with hundreds of stalls in wich each person is working for themselves or for their own family.
The supermarket must pay the salaries of all workers including the upkeep and rent of the building.
The company also wants to make a large profit on top of that.
Because of that prices are sometimes 2 to 3 times higher for the exact same products found in the palangke.
Now some people may say that the buildings of the supermarket are much more comfortable and air conditioned.
I would say that this is not a problem of either the palengke or the supermarket. It is only a problem of construction and logistics. If people want a comfy air conditioned palangke it can be build, there is no issue in that.
Then some people say that the supermarket offers products that can not be bought at the palengke such as for example shampoo or diapers and so forth.
This is true yes. But this is another problem of logistics. If the supermarkets did not exist these products would be sold by people in the palangke. If there is a demand then somehow these products will come.
Others might claim that its good one can pay by credit or bank card in the supermarket. This is true also, but most people in the Philippines pay by cash only, even rich people. And a cashless economy is extremely fragile to (natural) disasters which happen frequently in the Philippines. A cashless economy is not beneficial to the consumer but only beneficial to the banks who own the cards and hold the money.
Therefore I conclude supermarkets in the Philippines are not really needed at all.
Praise of palengke
The Palengke offers a wide variety of vegetables and meat that can not be found in the supermarket.
For example in the palangke I found 6 different types of eggplant (talong) while the supermarket only offers 1 or 2 at most.
The choice of vegetables and meat in the supermarket are extremely limited. And belief it or not, but the vegetables in the supermarket spoils faster than those from the palangke even tho the supermarket has cooling systems.
Another beautiful thing of the palangke is social interaction.
In the supermarket I only say 1 or 2 words to a cashier person whom I do not know at all that looks grumpy, annoyed, and tired from her low wage job.
Yet in the palangke I talk to the people who have their stalls. They are always there and we get to know each other. Stalls that I frequently go to offer discounts or give freebies.
I can ask them about their products and they give satisfying answers.
If I ask a store clerk in the supermarket about their products he does not know anything or needs to get a manager who also has no idea.
Tho I do have criticism reserved for the palengke which is that actually they still do not offer enough variety of vegetables. For example I would love to see over 10 or even 20 different types of eggplants, squashes, melons, papayas etc.
However to be fair this is more of a problem with farmers not growing a wide diversity of crops and not so much a problem of the palengke.
The palengke or at least the one near me does not offer brown rice, which is a real shame because brown rice is more healthier and even tastier than white milled rice.
Another annoyance is that often the palengke is extremely crowded and hard to navigate with all the people. However some people love this and it gives them a feeling of togetherness.
Altho it is nice to be with other shoppers in the palengke there is definitely a limit, the crowdedness now is just horrible and impractical for me. But again this is not so much a problem of the palengke itself as a problem of overpopulation and spacing. Practically the palengke can be made bigger and space between stalls more spacious to make room for shoppers.
While in the supermarket there is usually a lot of space, it is too much, making the experience feel hollow and empty. I once went to a very giant supermarket(hypermarket) and I immediately felt depressed.
Jungle Fun 