‘Maybe Filipinos feel poor, but know deep down that times are in fact a tad better — and are just happy to eat out and celebrate.’
I’VE been struck by repeating images of late: restaurants that cater to different budgets are all full.
Manam at Uptown Mall. Sentro 1771 at One Bonifacio. UCC Cafe at Burgos Circle. Heck, even Wolfgang Steak House and Pancake House in BGC.
Filipinos are eating out and eating out in droves. And this isn’t a COVID-19 lockdown backlash.
Is it a sign that the economy is struggling to life?
When I was working with a beverage company, I enjoyed long talks with our ad agency consultants who had great insights into the Filipino mind. One of the most significant insights I picked up from them was how Filipinas spent on beauty, whether the economy was good or bad.
And even more so when it was bad.
The logic? Why not at least look good and feel good to counter the external environment?
No wonder all over the metropolis today you see so many beauty salons and spas and all.
With the pandemic like a thing of the past, it looks to me like all these businesses are going to do well moving forward.
This should be good news to my friend Ken Dizon and his Kendi Lounges sprouting like mushrooms for a reasonable franchise fee.
Which brings me to the image of restaurants filled to the brim.
Filipinos have always loved eating out. Weekends have always been the days for family gatherings, with Lolo and Lola and the aunts and uncles and cousins gathering together and eating together. As malls have grown, it’s been more of an eating-out culture, which is a practical thing if you think about it. Why worry about what to cook and for how many and how to clean up afterward when you can just walk into a restaurant in a mall and sit, order, eat, pay, and leave?
But the restaurants I walked into were full on weekdays. Which made it all the more noticeable.
Maybe, just maybe, the economy is not as bad as some people have been telling me. Maybe the foreign exchange earnings of our OFWs continue to pump prime the economy
through the consumer expenditures of their families back home. Maybe Filipinos feel poor, but know deep down that times are in fact a tad better — and are just happy to eat out and celebrate.
And that’s why plates everywhere are full.
