All New Cash n Carry

I don’t really know when the original Cash n Carry was built. The supermarket is just there when I started working in Makati. The place looks old then and even their merchandise looks stale.
But before end of 2008, the place was renovated and converted into a mall. The place is actually too small in comparison with SM and Robinson.
The size is their strength and their weakness as well, depending on the customer. If you like a cozy place wherein you can easily find what you need to buy, the place is for you. But if you want large variety of shops to choose from, this is not the place for you. I believed that their target market is those people leaving in Cityland condomiums which is just a stone throw away from the store. The probably targeted the houses and rented bed spaces in the surrounding streets.
What I like most in Cash n Carry is that it’s complete despite its size. They have banks, BDO and BPI. They have restaurants, Jollibee, Yellow Cab, Teriyaki Boy, a Chinese restaurant, pancake and others. They have Mercury Drug, National Bookstore, Bench, folded and Hung, Astroplus, Japan Homes, Bench, Otto shoes, CDR King and other stores.
What they did is to have at least one type of store, one record store, one shoe store, one apparel, one drug store and others.
They also have movie houses, furniture store and food court.

The original Cash n Carry is REALLY old, I can tell you that...its small shops used to carry imported footwear, clothing and other items that were referred to back then as "PX Goods." Well, that was before the advent of trade liberalization when it was hip to wear much-sought-after imported (or probably smuggled?) goods.

There's something about small shops that I find appealing... reminds me about a similar place along Taft Avenue in Manila, called Cartimar. Is it still there? That's where I bought my bike years ago, by the way.

Because of their central airconditioning systems, malls are popular places where urban folks hang out to cool off from the searing city heat. I just wish, though, that local authorities should rethink their land use and zoning ordinances by disallowing the construction of malls along busy thoroughfares. Malls are oftentimes the culprit in snarled city traffic. I've experienced sitting for hours behind the wheel along Aguinaldo Highway in Cavite because of SM Bacoor; Ramon Magsaysay Avenue in Sta, Mesa, Manila because of SM Centerpoint; and along EDSA because of SM Megamall in Mandaluyong and SM City North EDSA in Quezon City.