IF there’s still any doubt that retail business is the “in” thing in the economy today, the rise of so many commercial malls even in Dagupan’s urban jungle should dispel it. Nepo Mall, Magic, CSI, they’re all here in our neck of the woods. Soon, even the giant SM or even Shopwise which has taken over much of the pioneering Rustan’s Department Store, could be in the city too.
Even St. Joseph Drugstore has become a chain pharmacy company almost overnight, opening several store branches all over the city like there was no tomorrow. No doubt, as corporate and market think-tanks say it, the retail sector in the Philippines today has never been as vibrant.

This trend however, it seems, only validates the common perception of many analysts, both foreign and domestic, that Pinoys may really be only good at retailing but shy away (dread) going into manufacturing. Many trade officials have openly wished the Filipino entrepreneurs would somehow find the nerve—and capital – to venture into the really challenging world of production or manufacturing. Finding our own mark in the market with our own native skills, materials and capital – beyond of course making bathroom soaps and shampoos and our woodcrafts and handicrafts that are now really hitting it well in the exports – would help put us in the First World status that President GMA wants thjs nation to be in 10 years.

Retailing – the selling of other people’s and companies’ products or services — is good and pays well as the current trend with malls and chain stores strongly indicates. But it is time to break out of that shell and mindset and go into manufacturing. Only then will we stop fearing this giant specter of trade liberalization that dumps cheap foreign items on us on the notion that beggars can’t choose and have no right to.