Devoted to women of color in business

I enjoyed seeing how lively everything is in the massive shopping malls all throughout Manila, including Shoe Mart (there are more than a dozen Shoe Marts), Glorietta Mall, Mall of Asia, Festival Mall, and Alabang Town Center.

The malls are where everyone goes to hang out, eat, shop, and socialize. The food courts alone are larger than most buildings I've been in!

As my grandmother says, there is something for A, B, C, and D (meaning everyone) at the mall. She and my grandfather go for lunch (with a senior citizen discount) and movies (complimentary for seniors) Monday through Thursday afternoons.

Big pluses about going to the shopping mall:

Plus: You cannot believe how much stuff is in the malls. The big department stores have floors and floors and floors of items (a lot from China, of course). If you need rubbing alcohol, bananas, crystal earrings, a car.... you can get it at the mall.

Plus: The food courts are awesome. At South Mall there is a vegetarian food stall called Bodhi with delicious dishes like soy chicken adobo, soy beef, soy pork, soy everything.

For merienda (afternoon snack), most of the food courts have specials, so you can get snacks of all sorts, like a steamed bun and tea, or an ensaymada and tsokolate (cheese bread and hot chocolate) for less than $1US.

Plus: The mall has air conditioning, so even if you just sit in the lobby and look around, you'll have a good time. When temperatures outside are hovering between 96-98 Farenheit, you'll be happy to be in the cool indoors before venturing out again.

(The picture is me at Bohol Quality Mall before opening time, waiting for the internet cafe to open up).
 

Prices: you can probably get a little franchise store up and running for 2.5M pesos. If it's a Jollibee (a huge Filipino success story), you can expect to invest between 20M to 30M ($355,240US to $532,890US).

The leases are typically one-year leases, and your location should be near other stores like yours (for example, at one mall, all the internet, video, wireless, and electronics items -- cell phones, computers, iPods -- were in one section).