http://www.marketmanila.com A food blog that talks about food, produce, recipes, ingredients, restaurants and markets here in the Philippines and around the globe. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:41:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/grapes-of-wrath http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/grapes-of-wrath#comments Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:52:13 +0000 Marketman http://www.marketmanila.com/?p=8930 It always amazes me how erratic, variable and unstable the prices of some groceries are at supermarkets and stores within walking distance of each other in Metro-Manila. I realize in a free market, there are absolutely no price controls; however, in a competitive market, prices should naturally reach a justifiable/equilibrium level where supply and demand intersect. In the latter example, intelligent, rational and informed consumers are the "police" of the system. And only if the buying public acts on price distortions will retailers be more careful about how they price their goods, and in some cases, practically fool the consuming public. Take red seedless crimson grapes, for example. Not exactly a day to day commodity, but something that many readers might at one time or another have purchased or consumed. I suspect it is just about after the peak of the table grape harvest in California, and a bijillion kilos of grapes are making their way to markets all over Asia, including the Philippines. I have taken to making grape shakes at home once a day or so. They are a part of my self-designed diet, and with 15-20 grapes per shake they make a refreshing, naturally sweet drink that costs less than a can of Diet Coke...]]> http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/grapes-of-wrath/feed 33 http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/marketmans-consumer-report-2-domestic-airfares http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/marketmans-consumer-report-2-domestic-airfares#comments Mon, 04 May 2009 01:39:27 +0000 Marketman http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/marketmans-consumer-report-2-domestic-airfares Cebu Pacific delays and consumer advocacy got me thinking the other day... Why isn't there more intelligent and analytical coverage of service industries in this country? Are writers and publishers so afraid that this kind of reporting will kill off paid advertising? I often turn the pages of the local papers and lament the lack of interesting content, and often rattle off several potential articles that I would like to read instead... Many topics require extensive research and analysis, but others may only need a few hours of simple googling to form the kernel of an article that will at least get people to think and act intelligently. I felt this way several times in the past, and once got annoyed enough to write this simple post (which took days of work) on pricing arbitrage (differentials) for a limited number of items at 5 Manila groceries, which I have now retitled as Marketman's "Consumer Report #1." For Report # 2, I started with an obvious premise, that I and the vast majority of the readers of this blog assume that Cebu Pacific, with its dodgy on-time performance, refund policies, etc., MUST have significantly lower ticket prices than its main rival, Philippine Airlines. True or false?]]> http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/marketmans-consumer-report-2-domestic-airfares/feed 49 http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/price-differentials-at-5-different-supermarkets http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/price-differentials-at-5-different-supermarkets#comments Fri, 20 Jul 2007 13:35:05 +0000 Marketman http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/price-differentials-at-5-different-supermarkets I floated the idea of doing a price comparison among groceries last January and got an enthusiastic response. Many folks even volunteered to check their neighborhood groceries, which was a pleasant surprise. I finally got around to attempting the idea, and I have to tell you, it was a a royal pain in the rear. I canvassed 10-14 products at 5 different groceries within a 24 hour period and eventually eliminated 4 products due to erratic availability and inconsistent size issues… At any rate, I have rushed to publish the results hours after my last grocery visit so that you can use this as a guide to check your own neighborhood grocery this weekend if you are doing some shopping. I would appreciate it if you would leave a comment with any prices you saw in your neighborhood grocery for the following SPECIFIC ITEMS so that the overall readership of Market Manila can benefit. The bottom line has some rather interesting conclusions (albeit the huge caveats on a small sample, small geographic area, etc.):]]> http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/price-differentials-at-5-different-supermarkets/feed 63