Cyberprince Chronicles

Although employees refuse to confirm anything, I have begun to speculate that the Glori Supermart Chain will be closing down very soon. (Thought I was referring to President Glori-a?)

For those of you are not familiar “Gloris” as it is fondly referred to, is a 24-hour supermarket with branches in Sikatuna, Congressional and Tandang Sora in Quezon City (Philippines).

Over the last 6 months, we have seen the Glori branch in our neighborhood shrink down in size. Rows of shelves have been condensed to a third of its’ original number. A lot of useless things are now being put in the remaining shelves to make it look like they still have merchandise to sell. There is hardly anything to buy, in fact last night we went in to buy some grape juice (and take some photos for this article) and the closest we could find was some old lemon drink.

We’ve tried asking the check out girls several times, but we have always been given the run around. “No we’re not cloing, new stock just hasn’t arrived,” for example. My cousin’s wife also tried asking. She says in one very rare occasion, someone admitted it to her friend, but we have no direct confirmation of this.

The same can be said about other branches. My officemate Mimi says that she started noticing the same thing happen at the Glori branch near her house. It seems like they are slowly trying to dispose of all their stocks. What confuses me however is how they can still afford operating 24 hours a day. Then again they are now poorly staffed. Last night they were down to about 3 people, 1 security guard, 1 manager, and 1 utility boy.

The idea that Glori could be closing soon saddens me. I’ve had a lot of wonderful memories here. I first used to come here back when I was in College. Back then it was a 20-peso tricycle ride from the house I used to live in. I’d visit to buy magazines, donuts and a tub of ice cream for those depressing months alone. My friend Gayle and I would also come over to buy ingredients for sinigang.

Now that I live nearby, Gloris has become an important part of our life. It’s here where we run to at 3 in the morning when we are hungry and there isn’t anything to eat at home. It is also here where we buy our prepaid Internet cards. My friend Jupiter will miss buying all these little items like hammers, nail cutters, padlocks, and cell phone casings. I will also remember it as a great place to get a quick and cheap toy for my inaanak.

Of course I may just be over reacting. It could be that they are just closing down for a major renovation, but then again how come everybody seems to be hush, hush about it?

In the next few days I plan to do a little more investigating on my own, who knows I might be able to stumble upon something.

I need your help! Next time you find yourself at one of their stores why not ask them yourself. Look around and see if you notice anything different. Also if you share fond memories for the store, just like me and my friends, leave me a comment or email and let me in on how important Glori is to you.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 29th, 2005 at 10:45 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.