department stores

reminiscing Cubao: when department stores were kings

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As was mentioned in a previous entry, Cubao at its height was a premier commercial destination. For casual shoppers and enthusiasts, Cubao was one of the top destinations in mind if you’re looking for variety and great bargains to boot.

To give you a good idea of how bustling was Cubao’s shopping activity during its heyday, I would refer you to this customized Google Earth map I made. Here you can see that the department stores (who at the time were the upper echelons of the shopping hierarchy) were located right across or next to each other. You can imagine the chaos if there was a simultaneous sale that will be held by 2 or more stores there.

cubao

We’ve already talked about C.O.D.; let’s talk about the other department stores which not only served as competition but contributed to the overall atmosphere of Cubao that is now a stuff of memories. Many of them I have known and visited so I’ll try to provide a better picture based on what I remember about them.

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reminiscing Cubao: C.O.D. Cubao Department Store

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This 2010 Christmas season, I thought it would be appropriate that The Urban Roamer’s Journal pay tribute to what was once one of the premier, if not THE premier, Christmas destinations in Metro Manila: the commercial business district of Cubao in Quezon City.

On a personal note, I was fortunate enough to experience memorable Christmases past in Cubao in its past glory and be dismayed by its decline over the years, but at the same time hopeful for some future memorable Christmases to be witnessed in Cubao in the midst of its bid to recapture its old glory.

Long before malls became the premier shopping destination, it was the department stores who were considered the apex for the shopper. Back then, competition among department stores was thriving, cutthroat as some might consider. No other example of that competition was witnessed in those days than in the commercial district of Cubao in Quezon City.

Even as the advent of malls in the area with Ali Mall and Farmers Plaza by the 1980’s, the department stores at the time were still kings. But  for many shoppers like my family, one department store stood out among the rest: the C.O.D. Department Store.

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