imported & unique items… S&R or Makati Supermarket.
live seafood, cheap & good quality – Shopwise
(SM will not let you choose your live suahe. i handpick my live suahe. making sure no dead or “luno included. with their price, dapat lang they let us handpick it. sometimes kasi there are small ones included)
asian products/asian veggies/fresh veggies – Landmark @ trinoma & shopwise
asian very unique products ( like black chicken, dried tofu skins etc ) – little store @ gilmore

anyway, i’m an avid shopper of shopwise. why? though some of the items at shopwise is more expensive, their 3x promo now makes them cheaper than most supermarkets. of course we can not compare them to some small neighborhood groceries. bec., like i said earlier, small groceries dont carry,things like alfalfa sprouts etc..

before their promo, cherry fooderama is generally cheaper. from champion detergetents to tissue rolls, to spam etc.

but just recently, i found out that shopwise’s spam is only 99.50, while cherry sells it for 100.10 (something like that)

to top it off, shopwise offers 2x points if your using their recyclable bag.making it, whatever your puchase’s total cost 2x. and in shopwise, for every 10,000pesos, you get back 100pesos in GC. even if some other groceries are cheaper, whatever the total cost is, if shopwise will provide you a P100 GC for every 10,000..it will still come out cheaper. so plus the bag..it will be for every 10,000pesos, you will get 200pesos back.

and if someone is vigilant enough, every quarter ( i think) or twice a year, shopwise offers x10 to your points.

although, it doesnt cover all items, we can choose items that we use often & is not perishable & buy loads of it. ex. my kids shampoo & diapers. when they had that x10, i bought like 5 bags of diapers.

last year, they even had a 10% discount on everything. unfortunately, they didnt anticipate the number of customers. so they ran out or pushcarts. bec. the promo started at 8pm only. i heard they even extended their store hours upto 4am! just to accomodate the number of buyers.

i myself was there…it was like hell on earth. as if people raided the whole store!

compared to SM, when one uses their green bag, i think for every — certain amount.. (im not sure of the exact amount), when you use their green bag, you automatically get 2pesos back!
what the heck?! what is P2 nowadays…? we dont even give that amount to beggars..and someone as big as SM, gives back P2 for every green bag they use? its not like they have the cheapest prices.

my normal gorcery amount is never less than 12,000pesos…and i only get P2 for it? i might as well throw it back at them.

while at shopwise, i get at least P200 in GC back from them. way way better.

and if i may add as well….hasnt anybody noticed that, if we are to use the environmental-friendly bags, shopwise’s bag is more convenient & heavy-duty. i buy cans & cans of milk for my kids. i dont think SM’s green bag can hold 2 big milk cans. it will just tear up! and if your to buy it, it will cost you 30pesos? WTF?!

unfortunately, i noticed with shopwise. the service in libis branch is far more better than in araneta. the people in araneta are so dumb.

one time i shopped there. when i was paying already, the cashier, put all my cheap bulky items in the environmental-bag. while the small expensive ones like parma ham, (p400 for a small thin pack) she didnt put it in. not kasya na daw. to my anger, i told her to re-do all the check out. bec. i will maximize the use of that bag. such a dum-dum. of course we will put all the expensive small items first in the bags, so i can get bigger points. hay…. :(