It was a typical day, nothing really special is happening. As we were driving past school I’ve noticed that SM is putting up a building right in front of Miriam College. I thought for a nanosecond and forgot what I was thinking about. Anyway, the car took a U-Turn into C.P. Garcia. The traffic was not so bad considering it was already past 2 P.M. I closed my eyes and thought about that cute girl I just texted. She puts on a different dress each time I see her, always something new more is preferred to less Adam Smith whispered into my ears. I felt the invisible hand tapping me on the shoulder, I woke up startled to see Adam Smith looking at me with his funny white hair and lugubrious eyes wait…It wasn’t… It was the driver telling me I had dozed off. We were already in Philcoa and I’ve noticed that Ayala Land is putting up another construction project. This has been going on for a few months already but the construction was going really fast because they had all the resources they need. Ayala has owned a lot of land and loads of money before Crisostomo Ibarra got back from Spain as Simoun.
It’s as funny as a log performing circus tricks *sarcastic haha* how time freezes and nothing really changes. Anyway the project was a tie-up with the University of the Philippines concerning a science and technology park here in the Philippines. This made me sit back and think…while the Toyota car is driving in Quezon City Circle, the clothes I’m wearing bought from an SM mall, the bags of groceries bought from SM hypermarket waiting to be dropped of at home (hint of something about economics coming *wink, wink *nudge, nudge)…wait I forgot again maybe Adam Smith will remind me later. Once I dropped the groceries at home, I had to run a few errands for my mom and she asked me to pay the bills in a nearby SM mall. I took the statement of account for the phone and electric bills carefully so that no surrounding molecules would be harmed. You wouldn’t want to hurt one would you? I rode the car and off I was to SM.
Driving down the streets of North Edsa I saw another Ayala mall this time its Trinoma and yet another SM residential project right in front of SM North Edsa and SM The Block. All these malls all in one place how consumer driven is the market in the Philippines anyway? Again maybe it’s the old more is preferred less adage. Consume, consume, consume. Come to think of there is an SM mall everywhere in the country and an Ayala Mall or Ayala Land right next to it. Adam Smith is telling me “duopoly yan” wow! nagtatagalog na si Adam Smith. It’s either a SM mall/residences or an Ayala mall/residences, you buy clothes there, you eat there, there’s a chance that you’re actually sleeping there too. I paid the bills and went home thinking about the next time we’ll probably shop and eat at SM The Block or Trinoma maybe as soon as Sunday its Mother’s Day another day to spend more not less.
*note to readers no molecules were harmed during this enterprise and yes the air outside the metro is still polluted.
-Joshua Berida
23 comments:
SM= sobrang magastos
I never thought of that! But, now that you've mentioned it, oonganoh! Goodjob :D It seems that SM is really booming.. From what i know of, SM acquired Banco De Oro and Chinabank and Manila Bank.
:)
All that discussion about malls and consumerism always remind me of Heidegger and Baudrillard more than any two people. I didn't do well on either, haha. (Nietzsche was my best friend.)
It is funny how things that used to be spread out in different areas are now cramped into one whole structure, ie. the mall. This very concept encompasses almost all aspects of life. See how in some malls, mass is being held. It is also your place to buy your school materials, your clothing, and heck, sometimes that's even where you eat. And for the more adventurous people, that's where they get their romantic escapades. That is also where a lot of people get their entertainment.
It seems strange that the Philippines is one of a few places (if not the only one) in which malls are also regarded as "tambayans." You might say that some people's lives revolve around this concept known as the "mall."
But one thing that would always strike me about malls would be the fact that despite that there are so many people in one place, you'd always feel alone. Even time leaves you there. And every need, as mentioned before, is warped into a few steps away, when you would normally walk quite a distance between usual locations. It is quite surreal, yet normal since it is widely accepted.
On a lighter note, I will be back shopping at Gateway soon. ^_^
yes, very good you've notice these things. haha
I like being in malls because it is very convenient. They've tried to cramp everything in one place...well there goes Mall of Asia, ang laki laki diba? Problem is you can't help but buy other things not on your "to-buy list" because you see so many proclamations that items are on sale.
Malls are taking advantage of the fact that we are a tropical country, unless your family extremely loves the outdoors, who would want to stay out under the sun? Besides,you not only have the heat of the sun to think about, iisipin mo din "saan nga ba naman may mga park na matino dito sa manila?" kaya yan, it has become a tambay place not only for adolescents but for the whole family as well. The malls have become part of the concept of "family day".
i saw mr henry sy last march..(sayang di ko nakamusta ang business) haha!
Ya, it's really amusing how the building of one mall (e.g. SM) spawns the building of another (e.g. Ayala or Robinsons) right next to it. I don't know how they market themselves as different/better than their competitor/s when, in essence, they're all the same. One mall serves the exact same purpose as its competitor beside it.
I'm not that fond of malls. They're swarming with people and, as someone mentioned in one of the posts here, you end up buying things you don't really intend to buy. But, truth be told, you really can't avoid going to a mall, for whatever reason. It has become a necessity in our day and age
adam smith is my great great great great great great great grandfather.
oh he taps your shoulder too? whenever someone taps you and you look back but see nothing there, think of adam smith and his invisible hand. i'm happy and proud that he's making himself present even at such a modern age as today.
That's the great thing about studying... when you start to look at the things around you in another way, when you start to see the bolts and screws that make everything around you tick. haha like... some people take the SM for granted, but when you take a closer look, you'll notice how everything inside it has been carefully planned and executed... its shaped Philippine society without us knowing it... and more impressively, it shows the true ingenuity of Henry Sy... galing niya! :))
Nice entry... quirky and informative :) good job on adam smith!
But a lot of SMs are so icky. Like, zomg. YUCK.
ICKY as in KADIRI. And did you happen to go to Trinoma on Mother's Day?! ZOMG. Like, omagodd. Too many people. Too many yuck kind of people. SM upgraded lang with Zara and Topshop/man. The crowd is still the same: LAME, STINKY and dark skinned.
great entry, :)
makes me wonder what would happen to us if malls (erm... for some insane, odd, unexplainable reason, haha) disappeared. what would happen to us then? it would prolly take us a bit before we figure things out. hm?
...mall dependency? :)
SM should be the country's national mall. Haha. It's everywhere. Anyway, consumerism is rampant and no one seems to care because shopping is fun fun fun. I'm guilty. :))
Nice entry. :)
- Tin
Take note of the architecture of the different malls: either the ayala malls or the SM enterprise, or maybe even Robinson's. They cater to different classes of the society with different needs, not only by ease of access of the mall but the positions of the stores themselves. By the way, you're going delusional and Adam Smith fanatic. Hahaha Are you on drugs?
duopoly? hahaha oh yes, more is preferred to less, i definitely agree! haha adma smith is THE MAN yo!
"lugubrious" ?!?!
nosebleed!!! hahaha. hindi ko na binasa (sorry). nosebleed eh. hahaha. huminto na ako sa lugubrious. hahahaha
yup. malls are everywhere. malls are like the new scenic spots in cities. it's like a one stop shop as well, you can pay your bills, renew your license, pay your taxes, and do a whole bunch of other things which was not available before.
Truly, malls have affected people's lives in more ways than one.. both good and bad.
Isn't it interesting how economics revolves around our lives, but we aren't actually aware about it?
this entry reminds me of the 3 currently running Starbucks in Katipunan.....
Thanks for commenting guys!
adam smith should really get a life. but after reading this..i think he's got mine. -miguel
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