Probinsyana Girl Went to Retail Store

by Gladys Maala

I was 16 years old, way back 2013.I was a fresh graduate of Highschool when my parents agreed to take up my college course at Manila.I am a probinsyana girl, I grew up in the province of Batanes. I grew up in a place where there is no buildings,SM,fast food restaurants or even a convenience store.So when my parents told me that I’ll be going to Manila to study,I felt so excited and nervous as well.Excited because finally I will see SM and other big stores,not only for limited days but for years because the last time I visited Manila was only for vacation and I was little girl back then the last time I visited Manila. 

One night when I arrived home from my graduation,my parents handed me ticket to Manila and that day, I was the happiest girl in the world.When I arrived here in Manila,my tita asked me where I would like to go. “SM” the word that comes out in my mouth.So there, we went directly to SM.We entered the SM and I was fascinated because there are a lot of restaurants,fastfood,clinical,clothing and many more stores aside from the many people roaming around the place. We went directly to the Department Store.The first thing I observed is that Department Store offers a wide range of consumer goods in different product categories.Theyhave sections that sell the following: clothing,furniture,home appliances,toys,cosmetics,sporting goods and additionally other lines of products such as jewelry and equipments. Products with various brands. It was amazing that almost everything that human needs in life can be find in Department Store.

We went to the shoe section.There’s a lot of shoes with different brands but there’s this one shoe that capture my eyes. A nike shoe, colors green and white and I find it unique.I asked the saleslady if how much it cost and she replied “ 4,799 “.I doubt to bought it because it was so expensive but my tita told me that it was expensive because it is branded and branded are hard to imitate so I was convinced and asked for size nine of it but unfortunately,there was none.I was so disappointed but the saleslady cheers me up and offered me other styles of nike shoes.In the end, I ended up buying some other kind of nike shoes.After buying shoes,we went to the supermarket for our weekly groceries and I noticed that the items were arranged according to their use.I also notice that the price are lesser than those that are sold in a little store or known as “sari-sari” store. On our way home, we bought toothpaste in a convenience store that we passed by and I notice that the price was much expensive than those in supermarket.

From this experience, I’ve learned a lot. A customer will always get influence by the brand perception and which in turn will influence a customer experience.Brand and consumer’s perceptions of the brand can influence their buying behavior.While a consumer’s negative impression about a particular brand can ruin a retailing store image. A product which is marked too high will make the consumer believe that there is value for return while a product that is marked too low will directly a product of poor quality. As a customer based from my experience, I prefer one that is branded and offer high price than a low price but low quality but not all customer have the same perceptions in terms of buying behavior. Customer standards will vary depending on the store and environment.However,there is other factor that increase a customer’s tendency to shop at a particular store, it is the relationship of the seller to the customer.