Manila Prices Vs Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

Tweet I grew up in Manila thinking that things are quite okay in terms of pricing. Over time I realized that things are not what I thought it to be. In fact, after 6 years in Kuala Lumpur, I started to appreciate all the lower prices that one could find here.

Having gone back to Manila for Christmas just last December 2012, I noticed some price difference in many things. Some examples:

- one of my favorite pasta brand is Barilla and I was ecstatic when I found it in Manila so I could cook some pasta dish I usually cook in KL. I bought a box of Barilla Spagetti no. 3 at Santi's in Fort Bonifacio Hight Street and it cost Php95 for one box. When I went to Metro Mart at Market Market I found exact same one at Php85. Here in KL, the price is Rm4.99 which turns out around Php67 only!

- we bough a Cotton On shorts for guys at Bonifacio High Street. After seeing the Rm pricing versus Peso pricing, there was close to 20percent price differential

- I shopped at Gap kids in KL before flying to Manila on dec 18. I was able to buy at 50% discount already at Gap Kids KL plus if you buy 5 items I got additional 20% on top of the sale price... I was happy! I arrived in Manila and saw there was nO big sale (at that time just a flimsy 20% off on knits). After Xmas, Gap went on sale but still could not beat the KL sale.

- before we left for Christmas, hubby bought a Hello Kitty castle toy for my daughter which cost rm159 at Jusco. There was a 10% discount plus rm10 voucher during the promotion period. When I got to Manila I saw it at Toy Kingdom selling for more than PHP3,000++ and that is about rm220++!

The only thing that Manila beat prices of KL were on services. I went to the hair salon, nail salon and massage... All prices were much lower than in Kuala Lumpur. And of course who could forget the genuine smiles and happy service of the Filipinos?

I guess you can't win them all!